Girls Always Win
by thexchromosomee
Summary: James Potter is a prat. Him and Malfoy and McLaggen. They seem to think that Quidditch is a purely male sport, but they have yet to learn. Amelie Perry, seventh year Ravenclaw and Quidditch Captain steps up with an entirely female team, bent on teaching them all a lesson: that girls always win.
1. Amelie has a plan

**A/n:** Also posted under the pen name HeavenofHell on HPFF.

* * *

_Amelie Perry_

My name is Amelie Perry and there is only one thing that you ought to know about me. I like quidditch. You know, with keepers and chasers and beaters and seekers? And quaffles and bludgers and snitches? Well, if not, then I'm going to assume that you've spent your entire life living in a box. Or that you're a muggle. In which case you ought not know anything. Anyways, I like quidditch. More than like actually – I love it. The _woosh_ of air as you rise and dive, the adrenaline rush as your team scores on the opponent, and that wonderful feeling in your stomach when your seeker catches the snitch and the crowd goes wild!

That is – if you win.

And that is exactly what I plan to do this year. I've been on the Ravenclaw quidditch team since I was a scrawny little second year, and not once have I held the Quidditch Cup above my head as my entire house cheers me on. Now I'm in seventh and I graduate in ten short months. This is the year. It's now or never.

The only problem is, I have no team.

You see, last year the team consisted of four seventh years and three six's, me being one of the six's. The older one's graduated and the two from my year decided to get a job rather come back to Hogwarts. Which leaves me.

Yeah. It's a pretty wretched situation.

And to top it off, Potter released the team list for Gryffindor this morning.

'I, James Sirius Potter,' He announced, standing on the bench at his house table, speaking to a crowd of jostling Gryffindors. 'Your devastatingly handsome and horribly talented quidditch captain-' Humble too, '-am here to present to you this year's winning quidditch team!'

Cheers arose and he waited a moment for the noise level to die down a little.

'Our returning keeper, Brice Finnigan,' He gestured to a sandy haired boy, who joined him on the bench. 'Myself and the Scamander twins as chasers, Fred and Hugo Weasley as beaters, and Peter Tate as our seeker!'

There were seven of them at that point, standing on the bench, bowing and blowing kisses to their fans.

I was surprised that the bench can support so much ego.

I will (grudgingly) admit that it's a strong team. I _may_ have spied on their tryouts. Just maybe.

'Do you think that it's a coincidence that they're all boys?' My dorm mate, Nell Dortan asked, stirring her porridge.

'James Potter was always a little sexist, I think.' Luthe Carter said, not looking up from his potions book.

'And the Slytherin team is all male too, isn't it?' Nell added.

'Yes.' I ground out. 'And knowing McLaggen, the Puffer team will be as well.'

'You know what Amelie, you ought to stick it to those boys.' Luthe said. 'The Ravenclaw team should be entirely female.'

I gave him a look. 'Is that a hint that you won't trying out, Carter?'

'Oh, don't be cold, Perry. Just because I'm your friend doesn't mean that I have to try out.' He stuck his tongue out at me. So mature Luthe. 'Besides, I don't have the time – I'm taking all of the advanced courses this year!'

'Right, Mr Unspeakable.' I stuck mine out in return.

'I'll come out, Amelie.' Nell cut in.

'Me too,' Added Ruth Taytum, my other roommate, as she squeezed in between Luthe and Nell.

'You play?' I asked.

'A little. You know my brothers, being in the international league and all. Couldn't bear to see their sister missing out on all of the fun!'

'Ravenclaw is well on its way to having a purely female quidditch team, girls!' I announced with a laugh. 'Tell all of the younger years!'

Of course, I was kidding, but Nell and Ruth took it seriously and spread the word. That is why right now I'm standing in the quidditch pitch, surrounded by girls, holding the tryout list that doesn't have a single blokes name on it. Don't people understand sarcasm anymore? Or have functioning brains? They should have realised that – and I don't mean to be harsh on my sex – a team of only girls (and Ravenclaw girls at that) wouldn't stand a chance against three teams of boys. Really Ravenclaws? I thought that we were supposed to be smart.

'Alright.' I say, looking at the scrawny second years at the front. 'Seeing as I play keeper, we'll begin with the chaser position. You'll be taking shots on Carter. You get five tries, and I'm also judging you on skills and tricks.'

Oh dear, that third year isn't even strong enough to hold her quaffle.

We are _so_ doomed.

Nell and Ruth are both trying out for chaser, and take the lead. The other girls trickle after them, most of the younger girls looking very unsure of themselves.

The fact that I should at least watch my friends shoot is all that is keeping me from smashing my face in with my clipboard.

Nell does very well, a four out of five and executing a signature move of her favourite Holyhead Harpie, which suprises me, as I have never actually seen her play quidditch before. If she managed to teach herself Morley's move by watching quidditch on the wizbox, I will be seriously impressed. Ruth also does well, with a clean five of five shots. There is only one other girl who catches my eye, a Miss Ida Winters, who makes four of her shots.

All of the little ones stagger off to the change rooms, tired after only a short amount of flying. One of them even bursts into tears as an older Hufflepuff boy leans over the stands and shouts something at her.

I won't deny that my wand twitched a little before his hair turned a violent shade of pink.

Next were the beaters, and the girls trying out are getting anxious, looking around the pitch, watching as the stands slowly fill with students from other teams.

'Pay them no mind, girls.' I say, but I'm such a hypocrite, as a moment later my eye catches that of the Gryffindor captain and my stomach drops. That prick came to spy on my try outs!

Again. I'm such a hypocrite.

The beaters take flight, smashing bludgers between each other. I take note on each girl's fitness and ability on a broom, watching one in particular: a skinny fifth year who seems to really pack a punch. Despite her size, she knocked an older girl right off her broom. The other girl was only minimally injured (though she cried like hell until Luthe carried her off to the Hospital Wing) and the fifth year earned a little star beside her name.

'Hello there, Perry.' Someone with familiar, laughing tones calls out to me. 'Finally given up on the Quidditch Cup, have you? I really can't see you making a winning team out of the scrawny chicks you Ravenclaws have.'

I turn to see James Potter striding towards me, flanked by his quidditch team.

'It's nice of you to come and give moral support, Potter.' I snarl, not in the best of moods. 'But I'm not in any need of your shit today, thanks.'

'Language, Perry.' He says with a laugh, and I turn back to the girls milling about.

'Anyone trying out as seeker, please step forwards!' I call.

No one does.

Potter is still laughing.

'I'll try out.' A pretty red head steps forwards.

Well, that shut Potter up fast.

'I don't have broom with me, or any gear, but I can ride on James's for now.' I recognize her now, Rose Weasley, a sixth year who seems to always put her school work and her family before herself. I don't think that I've ever spoken to her in my life, but I could kiss her for putting that horrible, constipated look on Potters face.

'No!' Potter shouts. 'Rosie, I forbid you to play quidditch for this – this-' Unable to find words to describe me in the foulest way he wants, Potter scowls and stamps his foot. How very mature. 'No.'

'James,' Rose replies in a soothing, and almost mocking, tone. 'You should have realised that when I asked you to teach me how to play quidditch over the summer I had ulterior motives.'

'But _Rosie_...' Potter whines. 'You _can't _play quidditch!'

'James Sirius Potter, you have no say in what I can and cannot do.' She scolds him sternly.

'Fine,' He huffs, then turns away. 'But I'm not letting you try out on my broom.'

'No need!' I interrupt. 'You were trained by Potter here? What a way to get back at him! Welcome to the team!'

'You can't do that!' Potter cries. 'She has to try out!'

'I don't see why not,' I reply. 'There isn't anyone challenging her. So, again, welcome to the team!'

Potter huffs and puffs for a moment, doing a nice impression of the big bad wolf, but he doesn't scare anyone so he turns to his team and they storm away.

I smile over at this wonderful witch named Rose Weasley and she smiles back.

She really is going to be a wonderful addition to the team.

* * *

**A/n: **The first installment of my multi-chapter story. You'll get to meet the other girls properly in the next chapter. As the story changes POV, the person speaking will be identified by their name at the beginning of their portion in italics (ie. _Amelie Perry_).


	2. Challenges are Issued

**A/n:** Here is the second chapter! We get Rose's point of view, then a little Amelie/James action.

* * *

_Rose_

In two days time Amelie has compiled the list of girls that will make the up Ravenclaw team.

'Listen up!' She shouts at breakfast. 'It is time for me to announce our house team for this year!'

The little first years turn back to their porridge, but the others all listen intently.

'I will, of course, continue in the keeper position. As chasers we shall have Nell Dortan, Ruth Taytum and Ida Winters.' She announces.

I reach over and clap Ida on the shoulder.

'Good job, Ida!' I whisper. 'Now we'll both be on the team!'

She giggles a little, but her cheeks pale at the realisation: 'I have to play quidditch now!'

'Our beaters will be Mariah Affey and Coraline Darcy,' Amelie continues. 'And our seeker is Rose Wealsey.'

'Oh shit,' Coraline laughs. 'So do I!'

'You didn't think that you would be chosen for the team?' I ask.

'No, and that is exactly why I tried out!' Ida says, covering her mouth daintily to avoid splattering us with her cereal as she laughed loudly.

'Well, that says a lot about our team then, doesn't it!' I say, standing to accept the schedule Amelie is offering me.

'We're doing Tuesday and Thursday night practices, from seven to nine, as long as that doesn't conflict with anyone's personal schedules.' Amelie says, pointing to the blocks. 'We also have the pitch on Saturday mornings, from eight to ten, and Sunday morning from ten to twelve. You girls are lucky, there aren't any other morning practice times available. You can thank your cousin for that, Rose. So, I'll be seeing you all at practice tomorrow night?'

'Yes, captain.' I we reply in unison.

'Good, I expect you to be punctual. I hate people who are tardy.' She gathers her bag and a piece of toast and walks away with the two older girls on the team.

'How do you plan on playing quidditch with your prefect duties, Rose?' Ida asks, pointing to the badge on my chest.

'I can make it work.' I shrug. 'I've been assigned rounds on Mondays and Wednesdays, anyways.'

'And of course, homework will be no problem.'

I laugh. 'I'm a Ravenclaw after all.'

But before the conversation continues, someone calls out:

'Rose!' It's Albus. He's flanked by his two best mates, Arrol Smith and Scorpius Malfoy.

'Hello cousin, Smith, Malfoy.' I reply with a wave of my fork. 'What brings you to Ravenclaw table this fine morning?'

'I've just had it from James.' He says, planting himself firmly as his companions stand there, looking uncomfortable so far from their own table. 'You've joined quidditch?'

'Yes,' Coraline jumps in. 'And myself and Ida too.'

Albus lets out a snort, causing my face to fall.

'What? Is it so farfetched?'

'Of course it is, Rosie.' He laughs, sharing a look with Arrol. 'You're just not the sporty type. None of you are. And you're up against the strongest quidditch team of the decade.'

'I never thought you to praise your brother's talents, Albus.' I grin.

'What? No, not the bloody Gryffindors! Us Slytherins! Our names are practically written on the cup already!' He growls. 'I feel sorry for you, Rosie. You finally feel something for the sport – and you're team doesn't stand a chance at winning.'

'Why is that?' I say, my voice a bitter cold. Arrol, sensing my anger, hits Albus on the arm. 'Because we're _girls_?'

'Well – Rosie –not exactly –' He flounders for a moment. 'What I meant was-'

'I understand just fine.' I grab my book bag, swinging my legs over the bench and stalking off. But I turn back and say: 'Twenty galleons.'

'What?' Albus replies, thoroughly confused.

'Twenty galleons says Ravenclaw wins the cup.'

Scorpius smirks, hitting my cousin on the shoulder. 'If you don't take it,' He says. 'I will.'

'Rose, you're on.' Albus finally agrees.

I nod at the trio and continue my exit. I cross my fingers while passing through the doors. I can only hope that by the end of the year I won't be handing over my savings to him. If I lose this, it's just another thing for him and all of my other male cousins to hold over me.

You see, Albus and I used to be really close, closer at least than I was to the rest of our extensive family. We're the same age, born only a few months apart, and used to share nearly everything. That is, until we hit Hogwarts and he was sorted into Slytherin and I into Ravenclaw. He became friends with the students in his house – some that I would not wish to be associated with – and a devotion to quidditch formed. I, instead, followed my instincts (thanks mum) to the library. We moved in separate circles, usually only crossing paths during classes and the occasional family brunch.

We became equally talented in different aspects, me in school and he in quidditch. This, of course, made both of our fathers happy, but they were constantly pitting us against each other, bragging about our accomplishments as if they were theirs. My uncles love the sport, and usually throw in a comment about their own children to get the banter going.

So, you will hopefully understand why I am not quite ready to write home about competing against my cousins in quidditch.

I hope that Amelie is a talented captain.

* * *

_Amelie_

I think that my deeply rooted hatred for Potter began way back in first year, when he pushed me out of his boat on the way to the school. He was very lucky that I was too waterlogged to cause any damage to his person – even as an eleven year old, I could have taken him. Since then, we've been quidditch rivals, and there was the odd time when we exchanged jinxes from across the hall, but they were few because the Headmistress enforced a rule against such 'childishness'. In my defence, the only reason why I turned his hair pink was because he jinxed me to trip down the marble staircase and I broke my arm. And he got away with it.

Sometimes, I guess he's alright. Like when he isn't bragging about his 'superiority in quidditch'.

Which is not right now.

'Potter,' I can't help but growl at him and his posse. 'This is a _library_. People come here to _work_, not socialize.'

'Perry!' He greets me in a cheerful tone, which only makes me want to rip his eyeballs out more. 'I didn't see you there.'

I harrumph, and glare when he dares to approach me. 'Leave me alone.'

'Don't be so cold, love.' He pulls up a chair, peering down at the papers spayed out on the desk. 'You can read you potions book upside down? Is there no end to the intelligence you Ravenclaws posses?'

'What?' I ask trying to right my books, but he has already lifted it and spotted my quidditch playbook.

'This isn't something that you just leave _lying around_.' He says, snatching it up.

'It _wasn't_- hey! Give that back!' I hiss, keeping an eye on the front desk. The hawk-like librarian is nowhere to be found. Seeing this, I take my chance, leaping to my feet, reaching for my book.

'Come on Perry,' He jeers. 'Where are those keeper skills I've heard so much about?'

I proceed to knee him in the crotch. It's a very effective method and my book is back in my hands before he has even regained his breath.

'Whatever.' He wheezes. 'It's not like I need to see you plays to know that they're not going to work. And do you want to know why that is? It's because you're a bleeding _girl_, Perry. Your entire team. Is. Bloody. Female. And once things heat up, you aren't going to be able to take it. There's a saying, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. I'm telling you to get out before it even gets a little warm.'

My face burns at his words.

'Do you want to know what's wrong with you Potter? You have this horrible, sexist, fish-eye way of seeing the world. Newsflash Potter: _I can be just as good as you._' I throw back at him. 'In fact, I can even be better. My team and I aren't going to give up. We're going all the way to the finals, mate. And nothing you do or say can stop that.'

I snatch up my bag, shoving all of my papers and books inside and slinging it over my shoulder. I storm out of the library dramatically, leaving Potter fuming at thin air. Once I'm in the hall, I slip off my shoes and break into a run.

I have no destination in mind.

I'm just running, hoping that it's going to take me where I need to go.

* * *

'Welcome, chasers, beaters and seeker to the first quidditch practice of the season.' I announce to the girls. I'm standing in the Ravenclaw change room now, before the chalkboard. Nell and Ruth are currently changing, pulling on the old, fading quidditch kits. I make a mental note to bring up buying new ones. Mariah Affey, the skinny fifth year who earned a star for knocking another girl off of her broom, is already dressed – quite a keener to begin practice. Coraline Darcy and Ida Winters are helping the other with their padding, and Rose Weasley is fussing over the school broom she's borrowing.

'I know that there has been much talk about us... and the other teams – more so than usual at least – and I am sure that it has not escaped your notice that the other teams are entirely male. I implore you not to be dissuaded in your desire to be on this team.' I say, slipping on my keeper gloves. 'Now, it's going to be hard to win the Quidditch Cup this year, as all of the teams are particularly strong, but as a first practice I think that we ought to start out slow. We should get reacquainted with our flying legs before we start on the tricks and such. So... off we go.'

I set Coraline and Mariah up with a soft ball that I found while cleaning out the change room, telling them to practice hitting it back and forth while flying around the pitch.

My three chasers fly laps and toss quaffles about.

And then there's Rose. Bloody hell, even on a school broom, she's fast. She soars through the air, diving and rolling, laughing all the while. After a few minutes of flying laps she slows and stops before me.

'I'd nearly forgotten how good this feels!' She declares. 'Are you going to pick on my technique as much as James does?'

'No, you have lovely technique.' I reply. 'Did your cousin really teach you how to play?'

'It wasn't only James, all of my cousins pitched in. We have a makeshift pitch at my Uncle Harry's house and we charmed apples to act as bludgers and walnuts as snitches to practice on.'

'Have you ever played with a real snitch?' I ask, lifting a hand to show her the golden globe. She shakes her head, no. 'I can guarantee to you that this little bugger is much harder to catch than a hovering walnut.'

I pass it to her and she snatches it up quickly. She holds it in her open palm and the snitch slowly unfurls its little wings. Pinning it between two fingers, she comments: 'It's quite pretty. Once I catch it, I may never want to give it back.'

'Gives you an incentive to catch it, then.' I laugh before gesturing towards the sky. 'Let it go and we'll see how you do.'

She closes her brilliant eyes and releases the shiny ball. It hovers indecisively for a moment, then, in a blink, it's gone. After another moment, Rose shoots away, searching.

Instead of following her, I speed towards the other team members. I set them up with drills, making mental notes about their techniques, but always keeping an eye on my seeker. Rose catches the snitch not once, not twice, but three times before the end of practice. By then, her reddy curls are messy and windblown, but she looks quite happy. She's sad about returning the snitch though, and I promise that she can keep the one from our final match.

The girls trickle out the door, saying their thanks and good-byes, and a few minutes later I follow, feeling more confident about my team than ever.


	3. Amelie plans some more

**A/n:** Thanks for all of the reviews and encouragement guys! Here's another chapter for _you_.

* * *

_Amelie_

By the next day though, I'm not feeling so confident. And that may have something to do with the fact that I ran into Klause McLaggen this morning.

'Perry!' He called when I exited the Great Hall. He waved me down, his seeker, Rhet Davies, following behind. 'I hear you've selected your quidditch team. And that it's all girls.'

'And, McLaggen?' I asked.

'Well – you can't be serious!' He said. 'You could at least throw Carter into the mix, he's quite talented.'

'And none of us girls are?' I replied, feeling as though I'd had this conversation before, and it was getting on my nerves. 'Listen McLaggen. We're just as good as you – likely even better than your Puffs – so leave my girls alone.'

'I'm just telling you, Perry, your team isn't going to hold if you don't get some proper players.' He glared at me, and then nodded at Davies. They continued into the Hall, leaving me fuming in their wake.

Which leads me to now, sitting in Potions class, with McLaggens words running through my head.

I sigh loudly and Nell sends me a quizzical look. I shake my head and return to the task at hand: copying the directions for the Pepper Up Potion, noticing that my desk mate has already begun hers. I become distracted again though, watching as my seeker (bloody brilliant girl she is, taking the Advanced course in her sixth year) makes her way to the supply cabinet. She is quite tall, but she's going for an ingredient on the top shelf and can't reach it. She stretches, and the hem of her shirt slips out of her skirt, exposing the pale skin of her wait.

Don't think of me to be a creep, peeking at one of the girls on my team, because it's not the skin that has me distracted, it's the reactions of the boys near her. Four of them gape openly at her, and at least three others steal secretive glances.

It's at this moment that I realise how the Ravenclaw quidditch team can get a leg up on the other teams.

* * *

_Rose_

_Sex Appeal_.

Two words are written on the chalkboard beside Amelie's four-poster. These words make me question what goes on my captain's head.

'What?' Asks Affey.

'Eloquently put, Mariah.' Amelie says, clapping her hands, grinning widely. 'What indeed? During Potions today I had a revelation – thanks to Rose.'

'Me?' I squeak. What does sex appeal have to do with me? 'What are you on about?'

'Boys, Rose, are attracted to you.' She replies and I splutter. 'Come now! Don't tell me that you hadn't noticed! You're a very pretty thing, but you hide under baggy robes. Oh, how the boys would be distracted if you showed off your figure more. All of you!' She underlines the two words passionately on the board, her chalk shattering into several pieces.

'Bloody hell, Amelie,' Ruth says. 'Is this what you were giggling about all afternoon? I thought that it would be something good.'

'This is good! This is brilliant! The other teams will be too busy chasing after us to focus properly on quidditch. And then, when they all fancy us wildly, there will be so much fighting amongst themselves that they won't be able to cooperate on the pitch!' Our captain claps her hands again, then develops a pensive look. 'It is fortunate that you're all already quite pretty, but we still have to find someone who can accent your beauty in the right way. We don't want the boys to think of us as tramps. We need someone who can deal with makeup and clothes and stubborn girls without tiring.'

'I know someone who might help us.' I speak up.

In ten minutes, my cousin Dominique is sitting on Amelie's four-poster, ankles crossed and eyebrows raised.

'In short, you want makeovers?' She asks, pushing a loose strand of her silvery hair behind her ear.

Amelie pulls a face. 'Not a... makeover, per say – more like a change. In looks. And ability to attract boys. Especially quidditch boys.'

Dom rolls her eyes and nods once. 'Alright. On _one_ condition.'

'We'll hear it.'

'Erm-' Dom flushes the trademark, vibrant, Weasley red, a look that she does not wear well. 'Put in a good word about me to Eli.'

'_Eli Thomas?'_ Amelie asks, eyes and smile wide. 'As in resident Ravenclaw and Head Boy? Surely you, Miss veela, can catch that lovely piece of man without our help. Besides, you spend enough time together for Heads business, don't you?'

'Well, yes – but I hope that you don't take me as the type to flirt instead of get work done. We have a lot to plan: Halloween, Christmas – and all of the bloody Hogsmead trips!' She covers her rapidly reddening face. 'And, honestly, he doesn't seem particularly interested in me.'

'We'll help you, Dom.' I jump in, removing her hands. 'As long as we get equal compensation.'

She brightens instantly. 'Of course! You have no idea how long I've waited for this moment, Rosie! You could be so beautiful, if you would simply embrace your femininity!'

If I had any sense, I would get out of there. Fast.

* * *

_Dominique_

Absolutely brilliant.

Yep, that's me, Dominique Weasley, miracle worker.

Rose pulls sourly at her skirt, but has stopped trying to remove it, so I think that the short length of it is beginning to grow on her. She stands in front of the mirror, beside her teammates, all of them looking significantly more female than an hour ago. She brushes a hand through her now tamed reddy curls, worrying her lip. For the first time since she began to develop into a woman, she is wearing a shirt and skirt that accent her curves instead of hide them, and from the way she's trying to pull her skirt lower down her legs, I can tell that she isn't particularly happy about it.

'Buck up, Rose.' Her captain says, looking equally unhappy about the short skirts. 'It leads to the Quidditch Cup.' This girl's previously frizzy, dark brown hair is now shiny and wavy, crawling down her back.

'How will James take you fraternizing with another House, Dominique?' Rose's friend, Coraline asks, flipping her sheet of blonde hair over her shoulder. I grin, she seems the most happy about the transformation from average to amazing. Her thin legs benefit from the skirt and her soft, blue eyes are accented by my muggle makeup.

'James isn't finding out about this, got it? If he knew that I was helping you girls, he'd have a cow.' I say.

The youngest on the team bursts out laughing suddenly, brown curls flying as she throws her head back. 'Sorry,' She apologizes after she regains her breath. 'I just had this horrific mental image of the Gryffindor boys made up like us.'

This, of course, sets us all off.

'How silly James would look in a skirt!' Rose giggles, then sobers suddenly. 'What a brilliant idea!'

'Rose! What a devious mind you have! Perhaps you ought to have been a Slytherin, and not a Ravenclaw!' Ida says, green eyes filled with tears of laughter. She pushes her dark hair out of her face before breaking down into giggles again.

'I could pull off green and silver, couldn't I?' My cousin asks. 'But then I would have to be friends with those annoying Slytherin girls, wouldn't I?'

'Yes, and we all know how much you hate them.' Ida replies.

After we've all sobered a little, Amelie turns to me.

'Thanks for your help, Dominique – or I guess I should go back to Weasley, shouldn't I? Anyways, I'll have a little chat with Eli later, as you asked.'

'Anything for my favourite cousin.' I reply, ruffling Rose's hair. 'If you ever need any more help, don't hesitate!'

I gather my book bag and head for the door, saying more goodbyes. Sneaking down the staircase, I hope to exit without being noticed, but I'm not so lucky.

'Dominique?' someone calls out just before I reach the portrait. I turn around to see a pair of brilliant blue eyes looking down at me from beneath a messy head of dark hair. 'What are you doing here?'

My mind draws a blank. What _was_ I doing here?

Honestly, sometimes I wonder if he's the veela and I'm the weak mind he uses his power on.

'I was, uh, helping Rose with... with stuff...' I manage.

'Um. Alright.' He says. 'Are we still on for tomorrow night? At the library? I have some more ideas for Halloween.'

'Oh, yes. Yes, of course.' I bite my tongue. 'Library.'

'Good. Well, I'll see you then.' He pushes around me to the portrait and I reply, feebly:

'Bye Eli.'

I stand there for a full minute before I realise that I was leaving too.

* * *

_Amelie_

'Alright.' Nell asks once Dominique has left. 'Where do we go from here?'

Mmm. I hadn't planned that far ahead.

'I guess we should see how it goes tomorrow and at practice we can discuss how well the boys react.' I say, biting my lip.

'You guess?' Nell asks twisting a strand of her blonde hair between her fingers.

'I haven't worked out what we're doing from here on, alright?' I defend my plan. 'This is all for tonight, girls. Get some sleep and get gorgeous tomorrow morning. We've got some guys to screw with.'

As the younger girls file out, all inspecting the different make up items they'd received from Dominique, Ruth collapses onto her bed, her wavy, black hair fanning out around her head.

'I'm not screwing anyone, Amelie.' She says, pulling off her skirt. 'Not even for the Quidditch Cup.'

'I didn't mean that literally, just screwing with their heads.' I reply. 'In fact, we could get them all hot and flustered, and then they'll be too concentrated on their personal needs to pay attention to quidditch!'

'I may have, a long time ago, mentioned that I wanted to know what goes on inside your head, Amelie.' Nell mumbles, slipping into bed. 'But I take that back.'

I scowl at her. My head is awesome.

* * *

When we wake the next morning, the other girls are regretting the decision to change, but I force them into their – terribly – short skirts and down the staircase. Luthe meets us in the common room, a smirk present on his face. I elbow him when I notice that his gaze rests on Nell's bum for a moment too long.

'As much as I love your tactics – I'm glad that I didn't try out for the team.' He says. 'I don't look nearly as smashing as you girls do in a skirt.'

'Perhaps we can get Rose to put you in one as well as her cousins.' Nell grumbles, trying to pull down her skirt. 'We could all use a laugh.'

'You've got Rose Weasley in on your scheme as well?' Luthe looks simply too happy. 'She's got some nice legs, that one.' He dodges my book bag. 'When do I get to see the rest of your team?'

'Breakfast is the grand unveiling – but you won't be doing any ogling. I'm appointing you chief of security for our quidditch team, and you have to promise me that none of my girls get hurt.' I tell him as we descend the marble staircase. Ahead of us I can see Mariah entering the Great Hall, already attracting the attention of several boys.

'Aye, for you, love.' He says, bumping hips with me.

We enter the Hall and I avoid looking around. Luthe does that for me.

He whistles. 'Ok, four guys on Ruth, six on Nell and seven on you. The seven blokes from the Gryffindor team, to be exact.'

'Oi! I only have four?' Ruth asks loudly, startling some first years, who scatter instantly. She grins and slips into their seats. 'Ah, I have muffins. Muffins love me.'

'Potter does _not _happy.' Luthe informs me, ignoring Ruth as she puts a selection of muffins on her plate. 'Oh, he's not paying attention anymore–' He whistles again. 'He is _really _not happy.'

I finally give into my curiosity and turn to look at the Gryffindor table.

'Wow,' Nell is laughing. 'I've never seen Potter go so red!'

And Potter does look red. Like _red_ red. And then I see what he finds so horrible.

* * *

**A/n: **Next** - **what has James Potter so angry?


	4. Rhet Davies acts strangely

**A/n: **fourth chapter, here we go!

* * *

_Rose_

I really do love my cousin. But she needs to find a love for longer skirts.

I wake up early, as usual, before Coraline and Ida, and dress in my new short skirt and fitted blouse. Tying my tie I leave the dorm without my friends, hoping to make it to the library before I'm needed at breakfast to show off my 'new look'. The librarian rolls her eyes at me when she meets me at the door, but I ignore her. The section I go to is the Potions aisle – I may have my mother's brain, but my father's shoddy brewing ability.

I shoulder my book bag, now heavy with Potions books, and make for the door. Glancing at the clock hung on the wall, I see that it's close to eight and that the others are waiting for me in the Great Hall. I push my hair out of my face and rush off down the corridor, cursing the tight heels that Dom had exchanged for my old Mary Janes.

'Rose!' Someone calls out to me as I'm hurrying down the marble staircase. I turn to find Julien Shoal, resident sixth-year Gryffindor prefect, chasing after me.

'Hello Julien,' I reply with a wave. 'How are you today?'

'I'm feeling smashing, darling, but I haven't come to discuss the weather with you. I've some to tell you that you're free from the clutches of that slimy snake of a prefect, Nott.' He smiles widely, showing his dimples.

'Free?' I ask, continuing down the stairs. 'Was I ever caught?'

'Aye – your cousin, the Head Girl, had you put down to do rounds with Nott, but he has quidditch practice on Mondays and Wednesdays.' Julien informs me, chasing after me. 'I've switched with him.'

'My hero.' I say, raising a hand to my forehead, pretending to swoon.

'There's the praise I was looking for.' He replies smugly, pushing his shaggy blonde hair from his eyes. 'It'll be just like last year! Good times!'

I've known Julien since the beginning of my school life, he's a friend of Fred's, but I had never spoken to him before last year when we were paired as prefects. Almost instantly a very strong bond was created between us – strictly platonic, mind you – when we realised how alike we were. We both have a strong love for school and punctuality, as well as rather poor abilities in Potions. He would be a very talented keeper, if James would ever let anyone new tryout for his team, but instead Julien keeps to the sidelines, placing bets and booing the other teams.

'How do I look?' I ask him, peering into the Great Hall, heart leaping into my throat when I realise how many people turn up early for breakfast.

'Uh, nice?' He asks, unsure of his reply.

'I don't look any different?' I ask exasperatedly.

'Well, yeah, your hair isn't quite as crazy, and you've got muck on your eyes, and you're much hotter than you usually are–' He ducks as I hurl my book at him. 'It's a compliment, isn't it?'

'I'd rather you say beautiful, _hot_ is just sort of demeaning in my ears.' I scowl at him, turning on my heel

and entering the Hall.

'But Rose,' He says, chasing after me. 'You're always beautiful. You're just... more so today.' He bites his lip and looks down at me with an adorable apologetic expression.

I sigh. I can't resist that face. 'You're forgiven. Now go eat, I'll talk to you later about rounds.'

'You're a doll, Rose. I'll see you later.' He says, crushing me in a side-hug before rushing off down the aisle to meet up with his fellow Gryffindor boys. I watch him up to when he reaches my cousins, who all turn to stare me down. I can tell that we're about to have a huge family meeting about the length of my skirt.

Game plan: refer them to Dom.

Thankfully, Nell calls out to me, saving me from my relatives.

* * *

_Amelie_

Potter's gaze flashes from me to Rose, then back to me. He glowers. I grin.

'I'll be right back.'

I can hardly contain myself as I make my way over to the Gryffindor table, my smile growing with every step that I take. By the time I reach the fuming quidditch captain, my face is threatening to break.

'What did you do to my cousin?' He demands, throwing a finger in my face.

'What? I don't get a hello?' I ask with a pout.

_'Perry._' He growls.

'So? I helped her embrace her feminine side!' I defend my seeker. 'She looks great.'

'She looks like a whore, Perry.' He says, crossing his arms over his chest. 'Did you see that boy? All that was running through his head was _shag shag shag_.'

'Hey!' The boy stands up from the bench from where he'd been listening. 'Don't talk about Rose that way. She's beautiful.'

'Shut up, Shoal. You're digging yourself a deeper hole.' Potter turns on the boy. 'And stay away from my cousin.'

'Not likely, seeing as we have rounds together.' Shoal replies, flashing his prefect badge.

Potter is silent for a moment, and then he cries:

'Family convention! To the Ravenclaw table!'

His male relatives follow him as he leaps over the Puffers table, startling some second years. Upon reaching the Slytherin table, grabbing his younger brother by the collar, he climbs over it too. I'm left standing with the few boys on his team who don't consider themselves family and a fuming Shoal. I catch Dominique Weasley's eye and she shakes her head before following her cousins. I race over to my house table to find that Rose has everything under control.

'James,' She's hissing. 'I can wear whatever I want to wear. I can talk to whomever I like and I can date people without your permission. And do you know why?'

Potter practically shrinks in his trainers as she brandishes her wand. The younger Potter is not quite so smart, and he takes a step towards the furious redhead.

'Rosie,' He whines. 'We're your cousins! We're just trying to look out for you!'

'I'm my own person, Albus!' She shouts, waving her wand arm about, shooting sparks. 'I can take care of myself! I'm _sixteen_, for Merlins sake! You have no control over what I want and what I do.'

Luthe picks this moment to sling his arm around her shoulders and ask:

'Shall I walk you to class, love?'

He tells me later that the black eye was totally worth it.

I agree. The look on Potters face was priceless.

* * *

_Mariah_

'Oi,' Someone is hissing. 'Affey!'

I push a curtain of curls behind my ear and continue taking note of what Professor Binns is lecturing us about.

'Urg the Unclean was a goblin activist during the fifteenth century.' The teacher drones on.

'Affey!' They hiss again. After a moment, I'm hit in the back of the head with a balled up piece of parchment. I ignore it, and after another moment, I'm hit again.

'What?' I spin around hissing. All of the students are either asleep of half-way there, except one. One Mr Rhet Davies. 'What do you want Davies?'

'I hear that you made it onto the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.' He hisses back over a row of desks.

'Yeah? So?' I reply. 'Couldn't this have waited until after class?'

'Oh, come on Affey, it's not like anyone actually pays attention in History of Magic.' He says, looking around. He snatches his book bag, slipping out of his seat and into the empty one next to me.

'Well, I do.' I say, turning back to my notes. The silence between us only lasts a moment.

'So, you're playing beater?' He asks.

'Yes.' I grind out, my quill scratching against the parchment. 'Did your captain tell you to come bother me during class?'

'No, of course not.' Davies replies, leaning back and kicking back his feet. 'Can't I come talk with my favourite fifth-year Ravenclaw without being accused of some evil purpose?'

'No. Because I am not your favourite fifth-year Ravenclaw. I think that that would be my dorm mate, Carol.' I tell him, trying to keep up with what Professor Binns is saying. 'And I think we both know that you're _not_ my favourite fifth-year Hufflepuff.'

'Ah.' I can see him smiling out of the corner of my eye. 'Carol. But, come on Affey–'

'It's _Mariah._' I sigh. 'I don't like it when people call me by my surname.'

'Hmm... _Mariah_.' He repeats, rolling my name around in his mouth. He looks down at his wristwatch and scoops up his book bag again. I'm about to ask him where he's going, but then the bell tolls and Professor Binns dismisses us. 'Well, I'm Rhet.'

Davies–_Rhet_ winks at me and strides down the aisle bumping his bag against the heads of the students still asleep on their desks.

Well. That's odd.

* * *

_Rose_

'So,' Amelie says that evening, chalk scratching on the board. 'Reactions?'

'Well, Rhet Davies was acting oddly during History of Magic.' Mariah says, placing her broom in her locker.

'The Hufflepuff Seeker? For McLaggen?' Our captain asks, nearly jumping up and down in excitement. 'Brilliant job Mariah.'

Mariah mumbles about how 'that boy is just confusing anyways', and sits down on the bench to untie her shoes.

'Anyone else?' Amelie asks hopefully. 'Rose?' She turns on me.

'Other than my cousins and your friend – that Carter fellow – I saw no significant reactions.' I tell her, cheeks flaming. I am, of course, lying. I'm simply hoping that if there aren't any results Amelie will let Dominique give me back my comfortable shoes. I really can't live a year in those heels.

'Oh?' Ida grins at me. 'And I imagine that all of those boys were simply interested in your new quill?'

'Shut up Ida.' I hiss, throwing my jersey at her.

'Alright. Here's the situation then.' Amelie says, writing all our names on the board. 'We will all pin-point certain people on the other teams and strategically _take them down_. Alright, Mariah, since you mentioned Davies, you can handle the Hufflepuffs with... Nell. You like McLaggen, don't you?'

'No–'

'Good. And seeing as your cousins are quite wrapped up with your private life, Rose, you've got the Gryffindors with... Coraline, which leaves Ruth and Ida on Slytherins.'

_'No–'_ Ruth and Ida moan together, but Amelie continues to ignore them.

'Of course, should anyone from a house other than the one that you've been assigned shows an interest in you, let me know and we'll monitor the situation.' Amelie say clapping her hands together. She bends over and riffles through her bag, withdrawing a stack of papers. 'Our last order of business: the games. Coach Wood finally organised the round-robin and we have the first game. We play against Hufflepuff in two weeks, on October 2nd, so Mariah and Nell, you two have work to do.'

Our captain passes out the sheets and waves her hands at us, signalling that the practice is over. She snatches up her book bag and leaves with Nell and Ruth, with Mariah trailing along after them. I wait for Coraline and Ida to dress and we all leave together.

'Oi, Rosie!' Someone calls out from the stands and several pairs of feet are heard rushing down the stairs to meet us. Fred Weasley's vibrant orange hair can be seen through the darkness, followed by a pair of shock blonde heads, Lorcan and Lysander Scamander.

'Hello boys.' I greet them with a short wave. 'Are you here to scold us about our new-found looks? Or perhaps to tell us that we aren't allowed to date until we're thirty?'

'Neither, cousin,' Fred says, pushing his fingers through his short hair. 'We may or may not have been sent by James to spy on your practice.'

'What? That cheating, little _scumbag_.' I scowl. 'Wait – I didn't even see you out there! How-' I stop though when I see what Lorcan is holding out to me. My lips form a small 'o' and I take the cloak. 'The invisibility cloak? That cheating, _lying, _little scumbag! He told Uncle Harry that he left it at home!'

'That's because Aunt Ginny would never let him have it! She knows James well enough to understand his need for the cloak. Either to spy on the other teams without them knowing – or to hide in the girls dorm and watch them change.' Fred answers.

'Bleh, that's disgusting Fred.' I tell him. 'I'd really rather not know what James does in his spare time.'

'Wow!' Ida reaches out for the shimmery fabric, sliding the cloak over her arm so that it disappears. 'This is _Harry Potter's_ invisibility cloak?'

'Yep.' Fred says, helping her put it on so that only her head is showing. 'Although, we aren't sure if this is actually our uncle's, or if it's the one he got from that crazy auror – Maddy something...'

'_Mad Eye Moody_, Fred. He was one of the key members of the Order of the Pheonix!' I berate him. 'You would do well to remember him.'

But Ida isn't paying any attention to us anymore. 'Well,' She says. 'It was nice seeing you boys. But I think we'll be going now.' With a flick of the wrist, the cloak covers her completely and she disappears.

'No!' Fred cries launching himself at the spot she'd been a moment before. He falls forwards, tripping over nothing. Lorcan follows him, and then Lysander.

'Run!' Shouts a laughing Ida from my right and Coraline only spares a moment to give me a look of excitement (we are Ravenclaws after all – the most exciting thing she's probably done before this year is putting a book back on the wrong library shelf) before running towards the castle, tripping over her feet from laughter. Without a second glance at my fuming cousin and friends, I chase after her.

James is _totally_ going to kill me for this.

* * *

**A/n: **Next we get the repercussions of cloak theft and Nell gives us some insight to her relationship with McLaggen.


	5. Nell speaks up

**A/n: **Here we get Rose, Mariah and Nell. Read away!

* * *

_Rose_

We show Amelie the cloak and she's ecstatic, she says that it'll come in handy when we sneak around and spy on the competition. I hide it at the bottom of my trunk and play dumb when my relatives come to question me about it.

'Rose!' Albus and James call out to me as I'm changing classes. 'Fred tells us there was an interaction between he and you where you came into possession of an invisibility cloak.'

'Oh?' I feint innocence and continue riffling through my bag for my Arithmacy book. 'An invisibility cloak? Your _father's_ invisibility cloak, perhaps? The one that you're _not supposed to have at school_? No, I have not.'

'If, hypothetically, I had given Fred our father's invisibility cloak and sent him off to spy on... people and he returned without it, then why would he tell us such a story?' James says, catching my hand and demanding that I look in his eyes.

'Perhaps he has lost it, and he is too ashamed to tell you that he lost your father's cloak.' I reply, turning to climb the stairs. 'Then again, perhaps he simply doesn't _want_ to return it.'

James's eyes narrow and he turns to his brother.

'That little liar!' He hisses and Albus nods in agreement. Without another word they spin and stride down the hall, cloaks billowing in a menacing manner. I'm left standing alone on the first stair, worrying about the future health of my cousin Fred. I push past the guilt though – I promise that I'll sneak it back. Soon. Ish.

But first, Amelie decides to send me out on a spying mission of my own. Actually, she sends Ida, but it's technically my cloak so I join her.

'It's Friday night,' Ida whispers as we shuffle across the school lawn to the quidditch pitch. 'What kind of an idiot plans their practices for Friday night?'

'A Malfoy.' I reply, pulling on the cloak so that it covers our feet. Two teenage girls don't fit very well under the invisibility cloak – it's designed for one – and we're hunching in order to not be seen.

'Stop tugging on it, now the backs of our calves are showing! I have no idea how your cousin and both of the Scamander boys fit under here.' Ida complains as we slowly climb the stairs to the top of the teachers stands. Their stands are the tallest viewing point on the pitch, which, according to Amelie, means that they're the best spying seats. From up here, we can see everything.

Scorpius, the quidditch captain is flying around, directing his team. Albus is floating in front of the goal posts, deflecting the shots that the Slytherin chasers are taking.

_Potter – talented keeper, hard on his right, soft on left. _I pull a piece of parchment out of my jeans pocket and write what Ida is describing to me. _Nott – Hard beater, left handed. Zabini – Fast chaser, always throws to the right. Ton – In need of a haircut._

'Ida!' I hiss with a little laugh.

'What?' She replies. 'I'm serious. You can see how it's affecting his aim – those slimy locks of his are getting in his eyes.'

The notes continue as such throughout the next hour and a half, until we decide that we've been out for long enough and the boys seem to be wrapping things up. Ida, being the brilliant witch that she is, stands in order to stretch, taking the invisibility cloak with her. My squeak of surprise invites the attention of a passing beater.

'Weasley?' Nott grunts as he stops to look at me. His eyes widen in realisation and he turns to yell: 'Oi, we've got a sneak!'

An invisible hand takes mine and pulls me down the stairs. I have to jump down the steps three at a time in order to keep up with Ida, but when we reach the bottom we're cornered by the Slytherin quidditch team.

Well, I am. They can't see Ida.

'What are you doing here, Rosie?' Albus pushes through the wall of sweaty boys to talk to me.

'I–I needed to talk to you.' I manage, mind racing to find an excuse.

'At nine in the evening? Couldn't this have waited until tomorrow morning?' He asks with a sigh.

'What? Potter, your cousin wasn't here to talk to you,' Nott growls, stepping towards me. He smirks when he sees my eyes widen and I shrink away. 'She was spying on our practice.' Albus reaches out to stop him but the brute of a boy continues to stalk forwards, backing me up against the wall. 'Weren't you?'

'Nott, boys, let's go get changed.' Scorpius says, nodding towards the change rooms. 'This is for Albus to deal with.'

Nott stands still for a moment but then follows his captain and team towards the Slytherin rooms.

'What is it Rose?' Albus asks, but his eyes are on Nott's back. 'Is everything alright?'

'Yeah. I just wanted to tell you that...' I wave my wand behind my back, silently _accio_-ing the invisibility cloak to me. Ida, who had scampered off after I was caught, has just become visible somewhere. And I wouldn't regret it if she gets caught by a professor – she left me to deal with seven slimy Slytherin boys. 'I found the invisibility cloak. Fred didn't think to _accio _it after he lost it. I think that it was somewhere out on the pitch.'

'Thanks Rose,' Albus says, reaching out for the cloak. 'But I think that I'm going let Fred stew for a little longer before telling him. He deserves it for loosing dad's cloak.' He wraps his arm around my shoulders and gives me a half hug. 'Thanks though, you're a lovely cousin.'

'You're a strangely touchy boy.' I tell him, swatting him away when he tries to kiss my forehead. 'You really need a girlfriend.'

'Ah, get out of here Rose.' He says, shoving me towards the entrance. 'I'll see you tomorrow morning during your practice.' He raises the invisibility cloak in a salute goodbye and I laugh as I leave.

I love Albus.

But was he just hinting that he was going to spy on our practice?

* * *

_Mariah_

'Hello there Mariah.' Rhet calls out to me as I'm changing classes. For a boy who hasn't spoken to me for the duration of my school years, he has become a constant in my life. 'Fine morning isn't it?'

'Hello Rhet.' I reply, raising a questioning eyebrow at him.

'The sun is shining, the birds are singing – I can only hope that it stays that way.' He tries to sling his arm around my shoulders but I bend over to re-buckle my boot. His arm hangs in the air awkwardly for a moment, then he lets it fall. 'For the game this weekend.'

I bite my lip. 'Right.'

'What? You sound worried.' He says, holding up a tapestry for me. 'Are you Claws not ready?'

'Oh, we're ready alright. We're going to kick your Hufflepuff butts.'

'You wish. McLaggen has us running laps and doing crazy workouts – we're the fittest quidditch team on the pitch.' He brags as we enter a crowded corridor.

'Fitness isn't the half of it,' I tell him, thinking about my own scrawny muscles. 'You need to have talent to be a good quidditch player. How else can you manage the tricks those professionals do?'

'Talent, pff. With fitness you can fake talent. Besides, the fitness really brings in the ladies.' At this moment, I'm bumped from behind and fall into Rhet's chest. He smirks down at me. 'I knew that you couldn't resist me Mariah.'

'Oh, shove off.' I tell him, pushing away from him and into the History of Magic class. He follows me and takes my hand, pulling me into the last row of desks. My friend, Mallory, turns and raises her eyebrow at me. I shake my head in reply and turn to Rhet. 'I'm not sitting here'

'Well, I'm sitting here, and I want to sit with you.'

'There are conditions to sitting with me. For one, we have to be in the front of the room. Secondly, you can't talk to me. And last, you have to take notes.' I say, listing them on my fingers.

He scowls. 'You're no fun.' Then he sighs. 'Fine. Second row?'

I nod and we move towards the front of the room, to the row before Mallory. Again, she raises her eyebrow.

'Why hello there Davies.' She says, leaning forwards over her desk. 'I simply must ask, what are your intentions with my dear Mariah?'

He laughs, slinging his arm around the back of my chair and turning to talk to her. '_Intentions_? Why is everyone so suspicious about my intentions with Mariah? Can we not just be friends?'

'No. You're Rhet Davies. Resident Hogwarts player.' Mallory narrows her eyes and tilts her head towards me. 'Don't play around with Mariah, or we Claws will kick your arse.'

'I'm not playing around.' He retorts coldly and turns around to face Professor Binns. He doesn't remove his arm from my chair though.

* * *

_Nell_

I am not a bad friend. I'm – relatively – nice, I like – most – people, I can bake – as well as expected, and I always give out Christmas gifts. I will also do anything for the people I love.

Except flirt with bloody McLaggen.

Amelie is crazy if she thinks that I'm going to 'woo' him by any means.

You see, Klause McLaggen and I have a history, and it's not pretty. We've known each other since we were kids, not in the best-mates-since-birth kind of way, rather in the if-you-hit-me-with-that-dungbomb-I'll-have-no-prob lem-hexing-your-balls-off way. Our mothers were friends through school and, after they grew up, they were so happy to have a little boy and a little girl to play house with. My mother even admitted that she had imagined us growing up together and getting married. Of course, all of those silly ideas were squashed by the time we developed our walking, talking, shoving and hexing abilities. We have an old picture of McLaggen and me together at someone's wedding sitting on the mantel at home. At three years old I was already a head shorter than he, and with my long blonde hair and flowing white dress I looked like an angel. He looked like the devil wearing a tailored black suit and shifty eyes. I remember the memory vaguely: someone was cooing at us and telling us to stand closer together, cheering in delight when McLaggen took a hesitant step towards me, and screaming when the arse pushed me in the mud puddle behind us.

Yeah mum. _Young love._

Our battles over the years haven't matured much. In fact, the last time his family visited I convinced him to check out the old tree house in the backyard – then pushed him out of it. He broke his nose hitting the ground face first. He complained for weeks about how the 'damage was permanent' and that he 'would never look the same'. I told him that the rogue look was in and that the girls would be all over him. Of course, he played up the accident when we got back to school, and the girls ate it up. The fact that he grew up to be a 'handsome and charming' (my mother's words) young man angered me even more as we moved through school. It's difficult to be mad at a boy when all you want to do is run your fingers through his short curls. Yes, I openly admit it: McLaggen is attractive. He's got brown, curly hair and soft hazel eyes, the kind of guy that you look at and your insides melt. He's attractive, but I'm not attracted to him – just to clear things up.

We've got things alright, I think. The hate-hate relationship has lasted all these years without hitch, flirting with him would destroy it. Not to mention he would never let it be, he'd torture me with the knowledge that I uttered a comment about him having a 'cute dimple' or 'heavenly hair'.

You see? I'm really not a bad friend for avoiding him until the day of the match and completely going against the wishes of one of my best friends.

Well, almost completely avoiding him.

'Dortan,' He calls out to me as I exit the Great Hall the morning before the day of the match. 'Have you seen my seeker?'

'McLaggen.' I reply in the same harsh tone that he'd addressed me with. 'No. Why do you think I've seen him? He and I don't spend any more time together than you and me.'

'No, but he's been rather cozy with your beater, the one in fifth year.'

'Mariah Affey?' I ask, and then I grin. Good on Mariah for actually listening to our captain.

'Yeah, that's the girl. Rhet has been blowing off my tactic meetings to _study_ with her, and every time I see him in the hall he's _carrying her books_.' McLaggen snarls, narrowing his eyes and peering into the Great Hall. 'There's something wrong with him, and I have every intention to find out what.'

'Hmm, studying and carrying books. Very strange.' I remark, stepping away from him and rolling my eyes. 'I'll hopefully _not_ be seeing you later.'

'Wait!' He shouts grabbing the arm of my sweater and pulling me behind one of the suits of armour. 'There they are!'

Peering around the suit, I spot a head of curls being followed by a boy wearing the Hufflepuff colours.

'Why are we hiding?' I ask, turning towards McLaggen.

'Because we're spying on them.' He says before pressing a finger to his lips and pointing to the pair of fifth years who are moving down a hall to the right of the marble staircase. 'Come on!'

'What? McLaggen, I have a class to get to.' I tell him, watching with a raised eyebrow as he performs a summersault and ducks behind the next suit of armour. He looks at me expectantly. 'No! I'm not going to spy on a member of my team as she spends time with the guy who fancies her.'

'If you don't join me behind this knight right now, I'm going to tell your mum that you snuck out on the night of her birthday dinner to go partying.' He growls.

'Ruth had just broken up with her boyfriend – I went to console her and eat ice-cream!' I scowl and defend myself. He's resorting to black mail to make me spend time with him, the boy who hates my guts? There is something wrong with him. '_Fine._ You have fifteen minutes of my time, but then I'm going to class. And I'm not doing any gymnastics.'

He rubs his hands together gleefully. 'Goody. Let's be off.' He does another summersault, then stands and rushes down the corridor, pressing close to the wall. I shake my head and follow after him.

We track Mariah and Davies down the corridor and up a set of stairs. They continue down another hall and they reach the moving staircases. McLaggen curses as they board the platform above and the stairs begin to move away from us. He grabs my hand and, without any warning, leaps onto the bottom stair. I just barely make it.

'Prat.' I mutter, but he doesn't hear me as he pulls me up to the platform. Ahead of us, we can see Davies take Mariah's hand and hold up a tapestry for her. 'Wait – what if they're going somewhere to snog? I don't want an eyeful of that!'

McLaggen simply replies with: 'That dog! I told him not to fraternize with you Claws!'

As it turns out, the tapestry is only a short cut and we re-enter the flow of students making their way to class. McLaggen spots them right away, moving into another corridor, and runs off. I chase after him. When I enter the hall I see our targets immediately, sitting on a bench in front of a sunny window – but my partner in crime is nowhere to be found. I turn to exit the hall but a hand shoots out from behind a tapestry and pulls me into a hidden alcove. I recognise my attacker in the almost-darkness.

'McLaggen?' I hiss, smacking him on the arm. 'You nearly gave me a heart attack.'

'Quiet, harpy, I'm trying to listen to their conversation!' He returns.

'It's nice, huh?' I hear faintly. The voice is distinctly masculine, meaning Davies. 'It's a lovely window for watching the sunrise.'

McLaggen pulls a face. 'The sunrise? Rhet is such a pansy.'

'Hush, it's cute. I'm sure he's earned himself a point in Mariah's mind.' I say, leaning forwards to hear better.

'It's beautiful, you can see almost everything from up here.' My teammate replies.

'Except the quidditch pitch. You can see that from the library.'

'And you know because...?'

'The library is good for two things: snogging and spying.'

'Ah.'

'Arse,' I say, 'The library is for studying. If I catch him snogging someone between the shelves, I'm going to make Rose give him a detention.'

'You're quite the hypocrite.' Someone from my right says.

I yelp and whip my head around to see a boy peering into our alcove. McLaggen reaches around me and pulls him in by the collar of his shirt. I then find myself squished into a small space regularly used by frisky couples, with two boys. Oh, the joy.

'Arne, what are you doing here?' The Hufflepuff on my right asks, addressing this new arrival by name.

'I was walking down the corridor, heard some whispering behind a tapestry and decided to check it out. I was also hoping to wave my seventh year superiority around and dock some points, but I'd probably be kicked off the team if I did.' He says trying to arrange himself comfortably between the wall and me. 'Who does this stunning face belong to anyways?'

McLaggen gags. 'Nell Dortan – hate of my life – _stunning_? Yeah right. If anything, saying such a thing would get you kicked off of my team.'

'Then why, if you hate her so much, are you comfortably squished together in an alcove? Usually when two people hate each other they try to stay far away from the other.' He smirks at his captain, then grins at me. 'Nell Dortan, I've heard so much about you. You're chasing for the Ravenclaw team this year, right?'

'Yes.' I reply, accepting his offered hand. 'Fortunately, McLaggen and I do not speak very often, so I have not heard much about you. You are...?'

'Arne Corner, keeper for Hufflepuff.' He says, running a hand through his short blonde hair. 'I guess we'll be playing each other tomorrow.'

'Shh,' McLaggen waves at us to be quiet. 'I can't hear them anymore!'

'Them?' Corner asks.

'Rhet is chatting up some Claw.' The other boy tells him. 'We're spying on them.'

'And how did you get pulled into this, Dortan?'

'Blackmail.' I say, giving McLaggen a dirty look. 'And she's my teammate, so I guess it's sort of my responsibility to make sure that nothing bad happens to her.'

'_Shh!_' McLaggen shushes us again, waving his hands about.

'Mate, I think they're gone.' Corner says, peering out into the hallway.

'Where did they go?' Asks McLaggen, stepping out into the hall.

'Probably to class, Sherlock.' I say, grinning at his dumbfounded face at my use of the fictional muggle character. 'Which is where I'm headed as well. Good day boys.' I salute them and turn on my heel, hoping that Professor Binns will let me off easy for missing the first few minutes of History of Magic.

'See you tomorrow at the match, Dortan.' McLaggen calls after me. 'I've never seen you fly before, this is sure to be interesting!'

* * *

**A/n:** I don't know if I've spoken about this before, but this is a slow moving story with a point of view and separate story line for each girl. So, we'll get there eventually - you're just got to wait for it. You'll get you Scorose - as well as eight or nine other ships. The only question is - which characters will you be shipping?


	6. The Claws play the Puffs

**A/n: **For any of you who can read Italian, check out Amazing F. She plans to translate some of my stories for me, so swing by and give her some support! Thanks Amazing F.

* * *

_Rose_

'It's come!' I say, rushing into the Ravenclaw change room, presenting my new broom to my teammates.  
I gave in and finally wrote my parents about me being on the quidditch team. As it turns out, my little brother, Hugo, had already written and my dad had gone ahead and bought me a brand new broom. A Starclimber to be exact, best broom on the market.

Amelie is the only one who is enthusiastic about this though, everyone else is moping about, slightly catatonic, all mentally preparing for our first match of the season. The sight of the Starclimber resting in my arms gives our captain the strength to give us a pep-talk.

'This is it, ladies. The defining moment in our quidditch careers. Today is the day where we step out on that pitch and show those blokes what we're made of! We've practiced long and hard for this moment. We're girls, damnit! We can do anything!' She cries, slamming her fist into her open palm. 'Let's go out there and kick some Hufflepuff tail!' She kicks open the door to the change room and marches out onto the grassy field, raising her arms in acceptance of the cheers and shouts thrown her way. The others follow after her warily.

I quickly change into my quidditch kit, forcing myself to focus on what I'm doing rather than the impending quidditch match. The blue of the jersey is faded and the bronze lettering (which spells Denth, the name of a past Ravenclaw, and not Weasley) is peeling. The padding for my arms and legs is beginning to fall apart, currently held together by spello-tape. I plan to ask Amelie if we can get new some new team kits. Running my hand down the length of my broom, I breathe deeply for a moment, pushing all thoughts of losing out of my head. This is it.

The Ravenclaw house is known for their brains and their respectability, but there is something else that they're rather proud of: their spirit. It seems that the entire house has turned up to see us play.

My teammates are flying around, battling for airspace with the Hufflepuffs. Amelie is doing laps around the pitch with Ruth and Ida, and Coraline is on the ground stretching her arms. Mariah is hovering close by, talking to a boy I know to be Rhet Davies, and near them Nell appears to be pretending to hit the Hufflepuff captain with a beaters bat while his attention is on his seeker.

I gulp nervously. I hope that Amelie's tactic isn't a failure.

I throw my leg over my broom and grip the handle tightly, the only thought on my mind being: speed. The only thing I can hear is the wind wailing in my ears and pulling at my clothes. In a matter of seconds I'm already flying high above the stands. There is a thunderous roar from the Ravenclaw crowd when they see me take off, all of them wondering how talented I am at quidditch. I dive and roll to please them, then spot my cousins sitting in the stands. James is sitting with his feet propped up on the seat in front of him, note-pad resting in his lap and quill scribbling furiously. He looks up for a second and I blow him a kiss. He scowls and jabs his quill into the ink bottle that Fred is holding.

Coach Wood steps out onto the field and waves for us to come down.

'It's the first match of the season, let's make it a good one.' He says, staring each of us in the eye. 'No playing dirty – I don't want anyone in the infirmary after this. Captains, shake hands.' Amelie and Klause McLaggen step forwards, locking hands and eyes. Neither wants to be the one to look away and in the end Wood breaks them apart, sending Amelie to her goal posts and McLaggen to the sky. The rest of the players join them. Wood waits a moment for everyone to be settled, then throws the quaffle up and blows his whistle.

The chasers jump into action, Coraline catching the quaffle first and heading into a steep incline, dodging Davies as he flies about, looking for the snitch. My friend levels out with the opposing goal posts and faces off with the Hufflepuff keeper.

'Darcy takes a shot!' The announcer, some young Gryffindor, cries. 'Misses! The quaffle rebounds and now Clark has it! Hufflepuff in possession, heading into Ravenclaw territory. Clark passes to McLaggen – intercepted by a bludger from Affey! McLaggen drops the quaffle and Dortan has it now, passing to Darcy – she takes another shot – it's good! Ten points to Ravenclaw!'

I reach out for a high-five from Coraline as she passes me and continue scanning the area for the snitch, while keeping an eye on Davies. Fifty points to us and twenty to them later, I'm still nowhere closer to catching the snitch.

'Hey, Weasley.' Davies calls out to me, speeding up to keep pace with my broom. 'What do you know about Mar-Affey? What kind of a girl is she?'

'I wouldn't know, why do you ask?' I raise a brow at the fifth year, watching as the light skin of his cheek reddens a little.

'No reason.' He says, then contradicts himself. 'I'm curious about her. She's different from the other girls in my year.'

'Different... how?' I ask. What has our little Mariah done to attract the attention of this Hufflepuff?

'Different... good. I guess.' He replies. 'Nevermind. It doesn't matter.' He tilts his broom upwards and speeds away, his gaze resting on one of the blue and bronze beaters below.

Interesting. It seems that Amelie's tactic worked. Well, for one of them at least. As I fly by McLaggen, I hear him instructing his beater to 'take down Dortan by all means possible'. But Nell is an amazing flier and manages to avoid every bludger hit her way.

At one hundred to eighty, for us, Coraline soars past me.

'Amelie wants you to take out Davies – trick him or something. I think that she's getting worried that the Puffs are catching up.' She tells me. 'Try the feint she showed you.'

I slow down and allow everyone in the stands to get an eye of what I'm doing, then suddenly plunge downwards.

'It seems that the Ravenclaw seeker has spotted the snitch!' The announcer yells. 'Davies follows close behind, but Weasley's broom is too fast for him – Merlins pants! Is that a Starclimber?'

Diving, diving, diving down – the wind whips at my jersey and hair as it slips from its ponytail. Just feet from the ground I pull to the left and up into the sky, nearly brushing the grassy field.

'Davies's down!' Is heard amplified through the stadium. 'Excellent feint performed by Weasley of Ravenclaw. But the Hufflepuff seeker isn't out yet, he's getting back on his broom! Bloody hell – he must have broken a bone at the speeds he was going!'

A crack sounds at the other end of the feild, echoing ominously.

'Bludger by Hufflepuff beater Boot, and Affey is down!'

There are gasps and boos from the spectators, but before I can turn to see what has happened to our youngest player, a glint of gold catches my eye. The snitch! I lean forwards and speed in the direction of the Hufflepuff goal posts, where the golden orb is circling aimlessly. It senses me approaching and spirals upwards with me in hot persuit. As I'm chasing after it, I lose touch with the outside world. It's just me and my broom and the snitch, locked in a battle of speed and agility. I hear the blood rushing in my ears, feel the wind pulling at my clothes, smell the sweat leaking from my body, see the small gold ball, always an inch out of my reach.

My fingers finally curl around it, my skin crawling from the tiny wings brushing against my palm, and I taste victory.

For a moment I don't even realise that I've caught it. It's just a little metal orb trying to escape my grasp, and then it hits me.

'Weasley has caught the snitch! 150 points, and the game, to Ravenclaw!'

We did it. We won.

* * *

Mariah

'Mariah!' Someone is calling. The noise echoes around in my head, worsening my headache. I want to tell them to shut up, but my mouth is dry and my lips seem stuck together. I part them after much effort, reveling in the cold, musky air that rushes down my patched throat and into my lungs.

'Mariah!' They cry again, and there is more than one voice calling this time.

'Bloody hell.' Is all I say as I open my eyes to find a jumbling group of girls surrounding me. I blink a few times to be sure that I'm seeing straight, then recognize my quidditch team.

'Bloody hell is right!' Amelie sighs, seeming relieved. 'You were out cold!'

'Hit with a bludger in the head.' Nell tells me, helping me to sit upright on the hospital bed. 'Really nasty. Good thing that you were only twenty feet above the ground.'

I scoff. Twenty feet? No wonder my body aches so much.

'But we still won the match! Rosie caught the snitch just after you went down.' She continues. Our seeker smiles in an embarrassed manner and I smile back.

'Anyways, we've got a raging party going on in the common room to get to–' I give Nell a look and she waves her hand at me. 'Well, as raging as a Ravenclaw party can get. But Pomphrey says that you can't come!'

'And for a good reason!' Rose argues. 'Mariah cracked her skull and broke several other bones from her fall! She's in no state to celebrate.'

'Well put Miss Weasley,' The school nurse says, appearing behind my teammates. 'Miss Affey needs her rest. I allowed you to stay until she awoke, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave.'

The girls grumble for a moment, then wave goodbye, promising to come by the next morning to pick me up.

Mme Pomphrey returns to her office and the person in the cot next to me stirs.

'Is she gone?' They ask, and I turn to see Rhet Davies peering out from under the covers.

'Yes, what are you doing here?' I ask, looking around quickly.

'Weasley pulled a feint. I fell for it.' He scowls. 'Do you remember this, or where you out by this point?'

'That's actually what put me out. You distracted me and Boot took his chance.' I say, trying to move my pillow into a more comfortable position.

'Oh?' Rhet asks in an odd voice. 'And do you find this–' He whips back the starchy sheet and strikes a ridiculously provocative pose. 'Distracting?'

He's only wearing his underwear.

Yes. It's incredibly distracting.

'What on earth are you _doing_ Mr Davies?' Mme Pomphrey saves me, interrupting and keeping me from replying. 'Stop bothering Miss Affey, _she needs her rest._' The ageing woman doesn't bat an eye as Rhet's rather undressed state comes into her view, she simply pushes him down on the bed and proceeds to try and tuck in the sheets so tight that he can't move. He fights her with every tuck, and in the end, she lets him have his way and he rolls on his side to look at me under the mediwitch's arm.

He quirks his eyebrow at me and I crinkle my nose in reply.

'Alright, Miss Affey, as long as you take these two potions, I'll let you leave tomorrow morning without a fight. One is a speed growth elixir that will quicken your recovery. The other is a pain reliever is needed due to the fact that effects of the elixir are quite painful.' She holds up a small bottle with blue liquid inside, and another with brown. 'A side effect of the pain reliever is memory loss, but it's only temporary.'

I crinkle my nose again, but allow her to uncork the bottles and pour the foul liquids down my throat. The elixir burns its way down and the reliever numbs everything. The ache subsides and exhaustion takes over.

The witch says something to Rhet and then returns to her office, closing the door with a loud click.  
I'm just about to give into my exhaustion when I hear the cot next to me creak and a pair of feet hitting the floor.

'Hey Mariah?' Rhet asks, whispering in my ear. It registers in the back of my mind that he's not wearing any clothes, but I don't really notice.

I make a grunting noise back at him. Attractive.

'Good, you're still awake. I just figured that since, you know, you're not going to remember this for a while, I could tell you–' There's the sound of him running his hands through his hair. 'Well, I have to do it now – I'm not a bloody gryffindor, I don't have courage sweating off me in buckets–' His sigh tickles the skin on my neck and I vaguely wonder how close he is. 'Eh, bad mental image. Don't – what I mean is: I like you Mariah Affey. A lot.'

* * *

Mallory comes to pick me up the next morning, throwing her arms around my neck and declaring how terribly worried she was. Rhet watches the exchange with a crooked smile before parting with one of his teammates.

Throughout the day I can't shake the feeling that I'm forgetting something.

* * *

**A/n:** That last bit there with Rhet is a salute to one of my favorite Hunger Games characters (I still love you Finnick Odair!). Next chapter we get a heap of Rose and Scorpius interaction! And what will come of Rhet's confession, conveniently forgotten?


	7. Scorpius is introduced

**A/n:** Here is the Scorose that some of have desperately been waiting for.

* * *

_Rose_

Our win against Hufflepuff has all of us on cloud nine – but the buzz has to end eventually, and mine is after leaving Potions class with the task of brewing a perfect elixir to induce euphoria. There is more hands-on work in the Advanced Potions class then I had anticipated, and it might lead to a Troll as a mark and a disappointed look from mother – two things that I strive to avoid.

I'm contemplating the ways that I can improve my grade without going so far as bribing my professor when it happens.

There's a vanishing step on the staircase between the third and fourth floor. If you forget to jump over it, there's a good chance that you're stuck in it until someone comes along to help you.

And I've just stepped in it.

The bell for class to begin echoes down the corridors and I realise after a moment of tugging that I'm stuck until the end of class. It's lucky though, I have a spare right now.

I sit down on the step above the one that has my leg caught in its grasp and reach for my book bag. I'm only a few minutes in to my Transfiguration text though before a voice calls out to me.

'Miss Weasley? My, you certainly are stuck, aren't you.'

I turn to see Scorpius Malfoy walking down the steps towards me.

'Yes,' I reply, putting down my book. 'I am. Is there any chance of you helping me out, or shall I wait until class ends?'

'Why would I leave a damsel in such distress?' He asks, dropping his bag next to mine.

I stand at the same moment that he kneels and we look at each other for a moment.

To tell you the truth, even after six years of him being friends with my cousin, I don't know much about the boy kneeling in front of me. I know that he's the son of Draco and Astoria Malfoy, whose family fought against my parents during the Great Battle. I know that he is rather handsome – even if I didn't think it myself, every other girl at the school would have drilled it into me by now – with short, shock blonde hair and a sculpted, aristocratic face. But beyond that, he's a boy of ice and stone. He almost never speaks unless the comment will entertain everyone in the room, and haven't I spoken to him alone. Usually Albus is standing by as the mediator, thinking that we'll break out into a fight or something.

'Put your hands on my shoulders.' He says after a moment, turning his attention to my leg. I do as I'm told and he grasps my calf, pulling hard. After a moment, his hold slips to my knee. None of his pulling seems to be working. He stops, placing one of his hands on under my knee and the other on the back of the thigh. This move surprises me greatly and I freeze. He does as well, possibly thinking that he has crossed a boundary.

I might have thought so too, had my mind not been occupied revelling in the feel of his cool hands on my warm leg.

I finally find my voice. 'You're hands are cold.'

'Sorry.' He removes them for a moment and rubs them together before retaking his hold on my knee and thigh.

'And they're rather_ high_.'

He looks up at my tomato red face and grins. 'You can blame the skirt for that.' He replies, turning back to the task at hand. 'But I think I'd thank it.'

I don't have time to think about what he means by that because my leg suddenly pops free. I hop around for a moment before falling backwards on my bum. He laughs at my gracelessness and I scowl. Scorpius reaches for our bags and stands, and I follow suit. He hands me my bag and we walk to the bottom of the stairs. We both turn to the left and then stop to look at each other.

'Where are you headed?' He asks politely.

'The library, for the Potions assignment.' I pick at the strap of my bag.

'Shall we walk together?' He gestures down the hall with a faint smile.

We set off for my book-filled heaven in silence. It wares on me. Should there be conversation? The silence is neither awkward nor comfortable, it's simply silence. I rack my brain for suitable topics, but before I can think of one, he speaks.

'I saw the match between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. You fly very well.'

My mouth works for a moment and then I smile. 'Thank you.'

'The Ravenclaw-Slytherin match will be something amazing, really.' He continues. 'You and me after the snitch... I can't say that I'm not afraid of losing to you. Your feint was perfectly executed.'

'Tell that to Amelie!' I say without thinking. 'She seems to think that I was off balance – I've been trying to perfect it since.'

I quiet and the silence returns.

'So, Advanced Potions.' I say, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. 'How are you liking it?'

'Well enough, I enjoy doing the actual brewing – though I'm rather shoddy when it comes to writing essays.' Scorpius confesses. 'I can never find enough to write about without repeating myself.'

'Really?' I say, laughing quietly. 'It's the opposite for me. I smudge through the brewing, but I can write twenty feet on the magical qualities of a Beer Root in regards to potion-making.'

He laughs along with me, and then suddenly stopped walking.

'What?' I ask.

'That's it Rose!' He shouts, laughing loudly. He grabs my hand and pulls me down the corridor, nearly skipping. His sudden display of energy scares me – and excites me.

His grey eyes seem to sparkle, showing his happiness, and he runs his fingers through his usually pristine hair, giving it a messy, worn look. There's a lightness in his step that I just can't match. The boy that I'd thought a stone as a heart, has happiness and joy. It certainly suits him better. I wonder if this is how he is around his friends. Does this make me his friend?

Had I thought this another time, when Scorpius wasn't forcing me to run down the corridor to keep up with him, I probably would have stopped in my tracks.

_Scorpius Malfoy... my friend?_ Daddy wouldn't like that very much. He told me specifically before I got on the Hogwarts Express in first year not to get close to this boy, who is now holding hands with me.

Strangely enough, I don't mind the contact at all.

Finally, I find my words.

'What do you mean?'

'I _mean_, we're the answer to each other's problems!' We round a corner and he pushes open the large library doors. Upon entering the room he quiets considerably. 'We'll work together outside of the classroom. You can teach me how to write essays worth O's, and I'll help you with your brewing.'

I'm lead over to the tables dedicated to potions students. The tops are scorched and covered in stains. When we reach them, he looks down and releases my hand before pulling out two chairs and places his bag on the table in front of us.

'We'll start with brewing the elixir to induce euphoria since it's due for next class.' He says, withdrawing a cauldron the size of a fist from his bag, then enlarges it.

Ah I remember the days, back in first and second year when we didn't have the skills to shrink items and were forced to lug our cauldrons around. Thank goodness I mastered the levitation charm early on, or else my arms would have been too sore to write!

'But the potion has to sit for twenty-four hours – madam Pince won't let us leave them in here over night.' I say, looking around for the hawk-like librarian. She's across the room lecturing some Hufflepuff boy about flipping the pages of his book too loudly.

'Have you never levitated a cauldron before?' He asks, quirking his eyebrow at me.

'Of course I have.' I roll me eyes. I had just been reminiscing about this.

'Good, then we'll take them to the potions classroom before dinner and tomorrow is Saturday so we can spend the afternoon working on them.'

'Alright.' I reply, then realise that he is ready to begin and I've not even got my cauldron out. I rush to remove my things from my bag.

Once I'm done, Scorpius opens his potions book and points to the correct page. I step closer to read the instructions.

'Now, what do you usually do first?' He asks me, sitting down in one of the chairs and regarding me with a pensive stare.

'Erm, check the measurements and prepare the ingredients?' It comes out as a question.

'Wrong.' He tells me plainly. I scowl and he chuckles. 'Don't be sore, love. Being wrong is all a part of the learning process. First of all, you need to take into account all of the information provided. What are the side effects?'

'Excessive singing and nose-tweaking.' I reply smoothly, knowing my answer to be correct.

'And do you know how to counterbalance these effects?'

I rack my brain. I've researched this before, for an essay. 'Mint sprigs.'

Scorpius grins, holding out a handful of sprigs to me. I look up at him suspiciously.

'I nicked them from the professor's storeroom, alright? I'm a Slytherin after all.' He says proudly. 'Wait until old Rosier takes a sip of your potion though and doesn't feel the urge to tweak your nose or let an old Celestia Warbeck song loose.'

I sigh, torn between taking house points from him and laughing at the horrible image he has painted in my mind. I choose the latter and he joins in.

'Alright,' He finally says. 'Now we begin measuring the ingredients. We'll start with by crushing the shrivelfig and peeling the castor beans. Measurements please?'

'Four teaspoons of crushed shrivelfig and a cup of castor beans.' I read, finger tracing down the page of the book.

We set to work quickly. Scorpius shows me how to crush figs in the most effective way and how to measure ingredients precisely. We add the figs and the beans to boiling water and go about stirring at proper intervals of time. Before we know it, it's almost time for dinner.

'Oh, I'm sorry.' I apologise. 'We didn't have the time for your essay...'

'Thats fine.' He shrugs, extinguishing the flame which he had originally produced from his wand. 'Perhaps tomorrow after we've added the porcupine quills we can come here. I have an essay for Transfiguration that's giving me a hard time.'

'You don't mind spending your Saturday nights in the library?' I ask, raising a brow. Scorpius Malfoy is like no boy I've ever met.

'Do you?'

'No.'

'Then, no, I don't.' He slings his bag over his shoulder and levitates his cauldron, looking at me expectantly.

I pull out my wand and try to push every other thought out of my mind. I'm perfectly fine at levitating things, but when I do cauldrons they have a tendency to overturn.

It sails into the air and Scorpius leads the way to the door. I keep my eyes trained on my cauldron (which, surprisingly enough, hasn't tipped yet) and follow after him. We head off down the corridors, earning a few stares. I wonder if they're due to the fact that we're a Weasley and a Malfoy, or that we're levitating potentially dangerous potions above our heads. My companion remains silent, busy concentrating on his own potion floating above us.

'Scorpius!' Someone calls out as we enter the Entrance Hall, making our way to the dungeons. 'Mate – oh, who are you–' I turn to see Albus exiting the Great Hall, from which we can hear the chatter of students waiting for dinner. _'Rose?'_

I jump in surprise at his accusing tone, loosing concentration. My cauldron comes crashing down, covering me in my half-brewed potion.

* * *

_Amelie_

I practically run down the corridor to dinner. I'm so excited to tell my team the news: Headmistress McGonagall approved my fundraising idea to buy new kits for the Ravenclaw quidditch team!

My happiness turns to confusion as I enter the Entrance Hall, taking in the strange scene before me. Albus Potter is waving his arms around and apologising profusely, Scorpius Malfoy is trying to clean up the rapidly spreading potion leaking from an overturned cauldron, and in the middle of it all is my seeker, soaked through and skin slowly turning sunshine yellow.

Well, at least my life isn't boring.

'Rose!' I call out, running across the hall to her, withdrawing my wand and drying her instantly. This does nothing to stop the yellowing and she whimpers loudly, drawing the attention of both of the boys.

Potter puts his hands together and pleads. 'Oh Rosie, I'm so sorry, I had no idea that you would spill your potion! Merlin! You're turning yellow!'

She whimpers again, looking somewhat like a puppy that's been kicked and left out in the rain.

'My potion...' She whispers. 'Oh! Professor Rosier is going to fail me! I don't have the time to make a new one!'

'Rose!' Malfoy suddenly steps forwards and grips her by the shoulders. 'Listen to me. If you tell the professor he'll understand. And he's not going to fail you – I'll ask if we can work together on this and we'll hand in the same potion.'

'He'll be suspicious. He knows that I can't brew half as well as you can.' She says, looking into his eyes.

'We'll just have to prove him wrong then.'

Potter looks over at me in a confused manner, but I don't know what's going on between them either so I simply return his look.

'I'll go talk to him now.' Malfoy continues, finally looking away from my seeker. 'Albus, perhaps you ought to take Rose to the Hospital Wing, to turn her pink again.'

Potter snaps into motion, picking up the empty cauldron lying on the floor in one hand and taking Rose's arm by the other. 'Come on, Rosie, let's get you fixed up.' They turn away. 'See you at dinner, mate.' He calls out to his own seeker as the blonde makes for the dungeons with a levitated cauldron.

I'm left standing in the middle of the Entrance Hall wondering many things. One being: when did Rose and Malfoy get so friendly?

Her friends have no idea when I ask them at dinner, but promise to find out for me.

'So what did you have to go ask McGonagall about, Amelie?' Nell asks as she heaps potatoes onto her plate.

'Oh!' I had completely forgotten. 'I asked her if we could hold a fundraiser in order to buy some new quidditch gear for our team. She said yes!'

'What kind of fundraiser were you thinking about doing?' Ida asks suspiciously.

'One that will appeal to the guys on the other quidditch teams.' I smile brightly at my brilliancy. 'An auction.'

'I really doubt that James Potter wants to buy my old jewellery box, Amelie.' Ruth says in a tone that bothers me.

'Not an old junk auction, a _people_ auction!' My excitement is met with silence. 'What? Don't you think that it's brilliant?'

'Well, if someone buys me, what are they allowed to do with me?' Ruth asks, now sounding wary.

'Oh, nothing bad of course. There will be rules imposed upon the buyers, such as: no taking advantage of us, no forcing us to reveal our team secrets and other things.' I reply, cutting into my shepherd's pie.

'Great.' Ida says, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

'I think that it's a good idea.' Coraline said from beside her friend. 'When are we going to hold the auction?'

'The Friday before the next Hogsmead weekend. The buyer will 'own' us for twelve hours – from eight in the morning until eight at night of the Saturday.' I tell her. 'I want you all to dress up for the auction, we can even get Dominique Weasley involved. And you really need to sell yourself to the audience – we're trying to make big bucks here.'

'Merlin's saggy balls, she's making us sound like prostitutes.' Ruth grumbles. I sick out my tongue at her and she sticks hers back.

That's us, seventh year Ravenclaws: epitome of maturity.

'And don't forget girls, even though our next match isn't until after the holidays, we have to keep training, and keep up our tactic. Mariah and Nell on Hufflepuff, Ruth and Ida on Slytherin, and Rose and Coraline on Gryffindor.' I remind them, then search out our youngest teammate. 'Mariah, I must congratulate you on the Davies front. Rose tells me he was rather distracted during the match. Nell though... darling, it seems as though McLaggen hates you as much as ever. Did you even try?' I am a little disappointed in her.

'I spent fifteen bloody minutes with him in an alcove, Elie! For you!' She defends herself, brandishing her spoon.

'You snogged McLaggen in an alcove?' Luthe asks from my left. 'Love, I thought that you had standards!'

She throws her spoon at him. 'No you arse!' She cries, cheeks becoming a blotchy red. 'He dragged me around to spy on his seeker and we ended up in an alcove, alright? I wouldn't kiss that prick if my life _fecking _depended on it.'

'Language, Nell. I'm still feeling tetchy about the potion incident in the hall and I won't regret taking points.' Our lovely seeker has returned from the infirmary, looking much less yellow than before. 'You ought to go rinse your mouth with soap.'

'Oh!' Nell is all riled up now. 'Just because you've never cursed before doesn't mean that I can't!'

Rose's face turns as red as her hair, but someone interrupts her reply.

'Rose, good to see you looking pink again.' It's Malfoy again, and Potter is standing just behind him, looking on as curiously as the rest of us.

'Oh, hello Scorpius.' Rose spins in her seat to speak to him. 'Did you talk to Professor Rosier?'

'Yes, he says that it is perfectly fine if we work together on the potion, as long as we hand in our own vials.' The tall blonde runs his hand through his perfect hair. I think some fourth year down the table just swooned. That boy is too good-looking to be natural. 'So, I'll meet you tomorrow after class? And bring your Transfiguration books too – I want my fair share of this deal.'

'Alright, I'll see you then.' She pulls on a lock of hair and peers around him to look at her cousin. 'And good bye Albus. There's no need to hover like that, I'm fine.'

Then pair depart and we all turn on Rose.

'What was that all about?' Coraline asks, eyes alight.

'Scorpius Malfoy, Rose?' Nell says, her annoyance at the girl gone in the blink of an eye. 'You have the best of luck.'

'What is this _deal_ he speaks of?' Ida asks.

'Merlin he's a good looking boy! It can't be natural.'

'That's what I was thinking!'

'And fit too–'

'Bloody brilliant flier–'

'And I hear he's a great snog.' We all look at the lone boy included in the conversation. Luthe looks up innocently from his pudding and defends himself. 'What? It's all the gossip these days.'

'Listen, I've already had the third-degree from Albus.' Rose says, ignoring our questions and comments. 'We're studying together to help each other pass Potions. That's it, that's all.'

'This is perfect though! We can use this to our advantage!' I say, mind racing. 'Don't roll your eyes at me, Rose Weasley. Through him you can infiltrate the Slytherin team! If you have a chance, look through his bag. He might keep his playbook in there.'

'I'm not going through his things–'

'But _Rosie._' I whine.

'I'll think about it.' She says, ending the conversation.

I fill her in on my fundraising idea, she seems interested enough, though the rest of the team isn't, and promises to talk to Dominique for me. I then force my team onto the pitch, a grin on my face even though it's raining. Things are going smashingly.

* * *

**A/n: **The fundraising idea is inspired by a 'student sale' we did for grad. My group was bought by 10 staff members at the school and we made them breakfast, lunch and snacks. The Ravenclaw sale is going to go a little differently from that.  
Also, _Amazing_ _F_ has kindly translated this story and The Gardenton Waltz, you can find a link on my profile if you'd like to read in Italian instead!


	8. Slytherins are gits

**A/n: A bit of a filler chapter, with some important filler fluff.**

* * *

_Rose_

I do as Amelie requests – talk to Dominique. There is no way in hell that I'm going through Scorpius's bag. Dom is excited about the auction and agrees to spread the word and help out the team. We whip up some posters and she puts them in the common rooms of the different houses. Amelie, realising that not many people take notice of the house poster-boards, plasters the rest of the school – the corridors, the loos, the alcoves and the broom cupboards – so that there is no chance of someone missing the auction.

We also pass the word on by mouth.

'So, Julien.' I ask as we patrol the seventh floor. 'Any plans for this Friday?'

He pushes his blonde hair out of his eyes and looks over at me with a smile. 'I believe that I'm attending the auction being held in the Great Hall by the Ravenclaw quidditch team.'

'Good boy.' I say, taking his arm. 'Don't forget your wallet.'

We walk the floor twice more before giving up for the night. There aren't quite so many couples snogging in broom closets on Wednesdays as on Fridays. I walk Julien to the Gryffindor common room, but don't go inside. I don't fancy seeing my cousins right now – no doubt they're in uproar about the auction. Instead I hurry down the hall to the stairs, my full intention to cuddle up in my bed and escape the cool fall chill that's settling into the castle.

But, as I turn a corner on the fifth floor close to the Ravenclaw tower, I'm stopped by pair of hands. One lands on my mouth, smothering my cry, the other gripping my waist and slamming me against the wall. Instinctively, I place my hands on my attacker's shoulders and push, attempting to fight them off. The only response I receive is a low chuckle in my ear and warm breath on my neck.

'Weasley.' His voice is a grunting sound, and I recognise it from six years of taunting. I scowl and reach up to pry his hand away.

'Nott.' I reply, returning to my efforts of getting him to release me. 'Let me go.'

'Merlin, who knew that under those baggy school robes you actually had figure. Not bad, I say. For a Weasel.'

'Let me _go._' I repeat.

He pulls away for a moment, his leering face looking down at me. 'I think not.' And then suddenly his lips slam down on mine, stealing a sloppy kiss. I smash my fists into his chest and try to knee him in the crotch, but I'm like a fly to him, buzzing about and bothering him. With a simple move of his hand he pins mine and I'm stuck.

'Oi!' Someone calls out.

Suddenly Nott's legs give out and he falls to the floor, releasing his grip on me. Nell is standing there, wand held out in front of her and eyes wide as saucers. It appears that she has used the jelly-legs jinx on the Slytherin.

'Rose!' She cries, rushing forwards. 'Rose, are you alright? What a horrible boy.' With a swish of her wand she silences his rebuttal. '_Petrificus totalus._'

I turn on my heel and run down the hall to the common room, leaving Nell standing next to Nott's inert body. I hold my angry red cheeks and try to keep my tears from falling as I cross the room, avoiding everyone's eyes. I bury myself in my covers and pretend to be asleep when my dorm mates enter a little later.

'Rose,' I recognise Coraline's voice. 'I know that you're not asleep. Come on. Tell us what happened.'

'Slytherins boys are all gits. Slimy, disgusting snakes.'

* * *

_Amelie_

Nell enters the common room looking as angry as I've ever seen her.

'Where's Rose?' She asks, looking from me to Coraline to Ida.

'I saw her go up to her dorm.' Mariah says, entering the conversation. 'She seemed rather distressed.'

'She just had a nasty run in with that oaf from Slytherin – Nott.' Nell snarls. 'I don't know what happened exactly, but she didn't seem all that pleased with what he was doing to her.'

'That slime ball!' Coraline yelps. 'Poor Rose. What did you do?'

'Silencio, petrificus totalus, bat bogey hex, the works. I left him propped up near the snake lair.' She shrugs. Coraline jumps to her feet and drags Ida up the stairs.

'Um,' A small girl appears at my side. 'There's a Slytherin outside asking for someone from the quidditch team.'

Nell raises a brow at me, then turns to the stairs, leaving me to deal with the Slytherin. I thank the little girl and slip out the door, finding myself face to face with Scorpius Malfoy. He shuffles his feet awkwardly, waiting for me to start the conversation.

'What do you want, Malfoy?' I ask.

'I want to see Rose.' He replies in a hurry. 'I heard what Nott did and I want to make sure that she's alright.'

'Why? Why would you want to do that?'

'I just... I care about her, I guess.'

'You guess?'

He looks at the ceiling and twiddles his thumbs. 'Yeah. I care about her. I mean, we're friends, right? That's what friends do. Besides, Nott is on my team and he's my responsibility. He skived off practice tonight and I should have gone to find him – if I had Rose wouldn't have gotten into any trouble. Is she alright?'

'Yeah. I think she's fine.' I reply, watching him with narrowed eyes. He shifts his weight, eyes darting from the ceiling to the ground to the door behind me, but never meeting mine. 'Just tell Nott to stay away from her.'

'You won't let me see her?' He accuses me, glaring.

'It's late, Malfoy. You can see her tomorrow.'

His glare softens slightly. 'Right. Tomorrow. Well, tell her that I came by, please.'

I nod and watch as he descends the stairs. Then I sprint through the common room and up to the sixth year girls' dorm.

'Rose!' I cry, throwing open the door to see her and her friends huddling together on her bed. 'Tell me about this _Scorpius Malfoy_.'

Her cheeks redden and she shrugs. 'What do you want to know? He's my cousin's best mate, he's the Slytherin Quidditch captain, and he's shoddy at writing essays, but he's getting better.'

'Not any of those things, silly. I mean, what's he like around you? Do you spend a lot of time together? What do you do together?'

'Oh, um, he's nice. I guess.' She reddens further.

'You guess?'

'Yeah. He's nice. He doesn't swear, he doesn't make crude jokes, he's genuinely interested in learning – I honestly don't know why he wasn't put in Ravenclaw!' Rose laughs a little, then quiets. 'Yeah, he's nice. We study together, you know that. And we have a few classes together. Apart from that, I don't see him much.'

'Well, guess who came to see you tonight.' I say, raising a sly brow.

She shakes her head at me. 'I know what you're on about, Amelie, but it's nothing like that. We're friends.'

'You may not be able to see it, Rose, but believe me. That boy is as good as in love with you. I'd bet my captain's badge on it.'

* * *

_Mariah_

I wake at some late point in the night, feeling altogether too hot and uncomfortable. I kick away the sheets and spread my legs out on the bed, trying to settle down again and reclaim the lingering threads of the dream I was having.

I can just remember...

_I like you Mariah Affey. A lot._

Wait. What?

* * *

**A/n: **Next chapter we have the auction!


	9. An Auction is held

**A/n: The long awaited auction!**

* * *

_Amelie_

On the night of the auction we gather in the Great Hall. We draw straws to see who goes first, and Nell is the one who steps up to the makeshift stage. We designed the stage so that no one can see the other girls until they step up for their turn, and the rest of my team are eager to hide from prying eyes.

Dominique has really outdone herself this time.

'Hello,' I call out to the waiting crowd. Most of them are male. 'I'm Amelie Perry, as most of you know, and tonight myself and my quidditch team are holding a fundraiser for new gear – but I'm sure that you could care less about the cause. On with the bidding. Our first girl up for auction is Nell Dortan, a fiery chaser, but really a darling, sweet thing.'

'Ten galleons.' Someone starts off the bidding.

Nell flushes a deep red at their enthusiasm and plays with the fringe of her dress. It's one of Coraline's dresses actually – Dominique raided all of our closets to find us clothes for the auction. It's deep blue in colour with silver buttons down the bust and little silver beads sewn into the skirt in swirls. The skirt reaches just above her knees and she's wearing a pair of light coloured tights underneath.

'Fifteen.' Someone challenges.

'Twenty.'

'Twenty-five.'

'Thirty-five.' The first boy calls out, and it's the final bid.

'Could the winner please step forwards?' I ask and a handsome Hufflepuff pushes his way to the front, handing me a small bag filled with the proper number of galleons.

The crowd breaks into chatter and Nell takes this chance to step up and introduce herself.

'Hey,' She says holding out her hand. 'Aren't you McLaggens friend? Corner?'

'Yeah, Arne Corner.' He replies, shaking her hand and smiling warmly. 'I think we spent a few minutes with Klause in an alcove a few weeks ago.'

_'What?'_ Luthe appears at my elbow. 'You not only snogged McLaggen, but this pouf as well? How do I get in on this?'

I leave the three of them to their conversation.

Mariah stumbles onto the stage in a pretty red dress, with white lace running down the bust to the cinched waist.

'Our youngest teammate, Mariah Affey.' I say, gesturing to the blushing brunette. 'She's a hard-hitting beater – knocked someone right off their broom at trials – but also a pretty, delicate girl.'

The bidding starts off at five galleons with several different bidders, but as the amount hits thirty, only two boys remain.

'Forty.' The fifth year Ravenclaw in the front row calls out and is finally met with silence. He smiles up at Mariah, who approaches him and reaches out for a high-five.

'Nicely done, Garrett.' She says.

'I thought that he was going to go on forever!' He replies, handing me the galleons.

'A boy can only pay so much for a girl.' Rhet Davies pushes through the crowd.

Mariah blushes prettily. 'Rhet?'

'Hello, love. Thomas,' He congratulates the other boy. 'I was wondering if you'd ever stop!' He winks at Mariah. 'Well, I'll see you two in Hogsmead.'

He turns away and pushes into the crowd. My beater chases after him, both disappearing from sight.

'Merlin,' This Garrett fellow says to me. 'He really should just ask her out. He's been beating around it for weeks.' He too disappears into the crowd.

I step back up on the stage and Rose joins me.

'Rose Weasley, ladies and gentlemen!' I cry as she wets her lips and looks out over the sea of people. 'Our sneaky seeker who put Davies in the hospital wing during our match. She's a girl with the brains, the brawn and the beauty.'

The bidding starts quickly at ten galleons, but Rose is worth much more than that.

'Twenty.' A boy in the back shouts out.

'Twenty-three.' Someone counters. I recognise the voice, but can't find the face.

'Twenty-five.' It's the boy in the back again.

'Thirty.' Rose winks at the crowd and shifts poses on the stage. She's really getting into the 'sell yourself' part of the auction.

'Thirty-five.'

'Thirty-eight.' I spot the face. James. Bloody. Potter. Bidding on his cousin? That git-faced arse.

'Forty.' But the other boy is going strong.

'Forty-five.' There's desperation in Potter's voice.

'Fifty.'

'Fifty...' There's a pause as Potter turns to his multiple male cousins and they search in their pockets. He then says weakly. 'Two.'

'Sixty.' The other boy says with finality and the auction is over.

Rose approaches the edge of the stage. She smoothes the loose green dress she's wearing and looks up at her buyer with a smile.

'Scorpius?' She says, jaw dropping.

'Rose,' The blonde replies, leaning on the stage and smiling suavely up at her. I wonder if he's trying to get a peek up her skirt, but he holds out his hand and helps her down to his level. 'Have I ever told you how fine you look in Slytherin colours?'

She does look very nice. It's one of Dominique's dresses, some French designer dress that Rose flat out refused to put on, claiming that she would ruin it. It's got a large, poufy skirt that reaches her knees and a tight, dangerously low, V-neck top. With the dress she wears a thick silver belt just below her bust and black, lacy stockings.

Her face is as red as her hair and she stutters out a 'thank-you' before her cousins burst onto the scene.

'This is the prick we lost to?' Potter growls. 'Bloody – Malfoy? What do you want with our cousin, you slimy snake?'

'Hey!' Younger-Potter protests the insult to his house, but is ignored.

'Stay away from our Rosie, Malfoy.' Potter throws a finger in the boy's face. 'You may have won the auction, but we'll win the war! We've got our eyes on you.'

And then he sprints away, trying to look dramatic.

Prat.

The other boys trail after him, Younger-Potter staying a moment longer.

'Sorry about James, Rose.' He says trying to sneak his robe over her shoulder. She shrugs it off and crosses her arms, glaring daggers at him. 'Can you blame me? You're showing quite a bit of skin there. Mate,' He turns to Malfoy. 'Rose is my cousin and I'm wary of this strange friendship you've created. Just don't do anything stupid.'

The pair of boys clap each other on the back in that strange way boys do, and Younger-Potter chases after his brother. Rose and I share a look. We have no idea what he was going on about just then.

'So, Rose,' The blonde turns back to her. 'I'll meet you in the Entrance Hall at eight.'

He smiles again and she waves weakly before he dashes off.

Odd boys, the lot of them.

'Here is Ruth Taytum,' I call as she joins me on the stage. 'One of our chasers! Looking mighty fine in stripes.'

She scowls at me, but then turns to the crowd with a winning smile, twirling in her pastel striped dress.

The bidding begins at five galleons and escalates to thirty.

'Thirty-two.' It's a group of third year Slytherins who call out the last bid.

Ruth looks around the hall desperately, winking at that tall sixth year in the back, but the boy places his money back in his pocket and she is sold to the third years. There are four of them and they scurry forwards, snickering under Ruth's glare. They hand me the galleons and rush off after telling my friend to meet them in the Great Hall.

'Let's have you up for inspection, Elie.' Ruth shoves me into the center of the stage. 'Amelie Perry up next. Found smart, pretty and rather funny by most – but if you're approached to be included in a plan of hers, _turn and run the other way.'_

'Fifty-two!' Potter cries out, suddenly appearing at the front of the crowd. 'Fifty-two! And don't anyone else bid on her or I'll hex you where it hurts.'

'Please!' I plead, putting my hands together. 'Please, someone bid!'

But my begging is met with silence.

His large, gloating face looms before me, holding out the sack filled with galleons. 'Perry. Meet us at the Gryffindor table at eight. Wear something warm and easy to move in.' He winks and whisks away into the crowd.

'I hate that boy.' I grumble to Ruth as I pass the sack to her to count.

'I'd choose him over those bratty snakes.' She hisses in return. 'You got off lucky.'

I roll my eyes and help Coraline onto the stage next to me.

'Coraline Darcy, everyone. A pretty sixth year playing Beater for the first time.'

'Five galleons.' A fourth year begins.

'Ten.' A fifth year challenges. They continue in multiples of five until they reach thirty. The second boy falters, but just before it seems Coraline will go to the fourth year, another boy joins in.

'Forty.'

The fourth year is silent, and a sixth year Gryffindor steps forwards. He has dark hair and light brown skin, a muscular build and thick shoulders. With him are the Scamander twins, a pair of odd, blonde boys with striking blue eyes. These two are on the Gryffindor quidditch team, but the other boy, he could be the head of the gobstones club and I wouldn't know.

'Forty galleons for you, Perry.' He says, then turns to Coraline. 'Gryffindor table at eight, alright, love?' He grins and he and the Scamander brothers disappear.

'Our seventh and final girl is Ida Winters,' I call as she stumbles onto the stage in a pair of heels. She rights herself and smiles pleasantly at the crowd. 'Ida plays as a Chaser in her sixth year. She likes butterbeer and long, romantic walks on the grounds.' Ida snorts loudly at this, but that doesn't deter the boys in their bidding.

'Thirty-five.' A bloke in the back calls out the last bid and, with no one challenging him, everyone else begins to leave the hall.

Damon Vicker, a Chaser from the Slytherin quidditch team, steps forwards with the thirty-five galleons, smiling in a surprisingly charming manner. Ida narrows her eyes at him and raises a brow as he tells her to meet him by the marble staircase.

When he leaves, the girls gather around and Ruth counts out the money.

'Two-hundred and ninety-three, two hundred and ninety-four.' She says, placing the last galleon in her old jewellery box-turned money safe. 'There you are, Amelie. I hope that these new kits are worth the effort.'

* * *

**A/n: The next few chapters will allow for character development of the boys, and a chance for things to get interesting! I want to see if I can surprise you guys with some of the twists and turns planned for the story. Keep checking in for the next chapter!**


	10. Mariah is suspicious

**A/n: **Sorry for the long wait, readers! I've been away from all things electronic for the past 10 days. Here's me making up for it.

* * *

_Mariah_

With one last look at Amelie and Garrett, I tear after Rhet. I'm not tall enough to see over the heads of most, but every now and then I catch a glance of his dark hair. I reach the edge of the crowd and spot him exiting the Entrance Hall.

'Rhet!' I call after him. 'Wait up!' He turns and I run to catch him. 'You were bidding on me?'

'Yeah,' He seems confused by the question. 'Why not? We hardly spend any time with each other outside of class, I thought that we could hit the sweets shop together this weekend.'

'Oh.' I say, a hollow feeling settling in my stomach.

'Is that all?' He asks, raising a brow. 'I've got an essay that I should finish.' He turns away.

'Wait,' I say, placing a hand on his arm and pulling on it so that he's looking at me again. 'I feel like I've been forgetting something. Ever since I was in the hospital. What happened?'

'Not much, Pomphrey gave you some potions and you passed out.' He shrugs. 'Perhaps you hallucinated or something.'

I purse my lips and look at my feet. What was I hoping he'd say? Was I hoping that he'd confirm what I'd dreamed?

'Well, I hope that you have a nice time tomorrow in Hogsmead, whatever you're doing. Thank-you for bidding on me, even though Garrett beat you out.' I play with the fringe of my dress and avoid looking at his face.

'You have a nice time as well.' He says.

On impulse I take his chin and press my lips to the base of his cheek. My face lights up when I realise what I've done and I step away, rushing into the Great Hall, not looking back.

I smile at Garrett as he leaves, and only a few hours later I see him again.

Amelie decided that I wasn't a priority because Garrett is my friend, and he doesn't play quidditch, so I'm wearing things that I pulled from my own closet. A tight pair of jeans tucked into my winter boots with a faded Puddlemere United shirt under a thick jacket that I think actually belongs to Mallory. My hair, though, receives a thorough curling by Rose's cousin when she spots my horrible bed-head, and my face is painted with lip-stick and blush and mascara. Before she manages to get the eye-liner on me I escape to the Entrance Hall.

'Mariah!' Garrett cries, greeting me with a bear-hug. 'Ready for the next twelve hours? My dormmates made a list of things that we should do – but I don't think that you'd much like cleaning our loo.' My face pinches at the thought and he laughs as we step into the line of students handing their permission slips to the caretaker. 'There are some fun ones though, like visiting the Shrieking Shack and Honeydukes. Oh, and you're carrying all of my purchases, and there's no way around it. I paid forty galleons for a day with you, and I'm getting my worth.'

I agree to his demand and search the Hall for my teammates. Scorpius Malfoy is standing a few people behind us, looking around for Rose. Last I saw her she was sitting on a bed in the seventh year dorm. Malfoy looks anxious to see her, I hope she hurries.

'When is your next match?' Garrett asks, distracting me for the moment.

The next time I see Malfoy is in our carriage, now sitting with Rose. The ride is mostly spent in silence, and I take this time to watch how our competition acts around my teammate. Amelie went on for ages after that accident with Nott about how Malfoy was well on his way to being in love with Rose, and I can see it. He's very aware of her movements, at the slightest twitch his eyes fly over to her, and he's quite different from the cold, quiet Slytherin I've seen patrolling the corridors. He actually laughs and smiles at the things she says, something that I hadn't even imagined possible.

When we reach the village they dash off, leaving me with Garrett. We stop at all of the usual shops: Honeydukes, Zonko's, Scrivenshaft's and the post office. And my buyer is sure to purchase a heavy load at each store. I spot Rose and take notice that she isn't carrying anything.

Five bags, two boxes and a metal cage later, we stop off at the Three Broomsticks for butterbeer. I drop Garrett's things on the floor and drink away my pained feet and sore back.

'So, since when are you and Rhet such good friends?' I ask, the question that has been burning in the back of my mind finally slipping out.

'I don't know – Gyffindor and Hufflepuff have a lot of classes together this year and Rhet and I've been talking.' Garrett replies with a shrug. 'He likes you a whole lot, you know.'

My tongue dries and I find myself at a loss as to what to say.

'Oh.'

'He's been beating around it for ages, but he really fancies you. He told me yesterday after the auction that he was hoping to buy you, that way he could be spared the humiliation of being shot down if he asked you to Hogsmead.' Garrett continues.

I wish that he would hold his tongue. He's telling me all that I want to hear, but, at the same time, I don't want to know. Hearing it spoken, that Rhet fancies me, only raises more questions in my mind. If I had never known, only had inklings and ideas and feelings, then I could have let the strangeness of our sudden relationship pass and never think on it, but with the proof hitting me in the face I can't avoid questioning it.

'Would you have shot him down, Mariah?' He asks. 'If Rhet asked you out?'

'Don't you think that it's a little odd?' I ask in return, a sinking feeling settling in my stomach. 'That only this year Rhet has given me any attention? It's not like I changed over the summer. I mean, he had never even spoken to me before that one time in History of Magic! He likes flashy girls, Garrett. Has he somehow been misled? Does he think that I am his usual sort of material? Am I a Carol? Am I just his new conquest?'

'Mariah-' Garrett begins to reassure me, but I've started thinking, started talking, and now I can't stop.

'What if this is all about quidditch?' We both stop and just look at each other. And then I realise it. 'I've been played. This is all about quidditch.'

'You don't know that.'

'Yes, Garrett, I do.' I say, putting my head in my hands. 'Just think about it for a second. Think about me. Am I really the kind of person Rhet wants? Think about Rhet. What kind of person is he? A _liar_? A _conniving_ little _backstabber_? Think about the stakes on the quidditch cup and think about McLaggen. He would do this. He would do anything to assure that Hufflepuff takes the lead. They're trying to get in my head to play with me. Just like what we're doing with them. Just... think about it.'

'No, Mariah. You think about it.' Garrett says, placing a heavy hand on my arm. 'Do _you_ think that Rhet would do that?'

'I don't know.'

* * *

_Rose_

Even though our day with the buyers actually begins at eight, Dom barges into our dorm at six, forcing us into the shower while she raids our dressers. After gathering up all of the 'suitable' clothing, we move to the seventh year's dorm because of our other roommates.

Dom sets about, laying out outfits for us to wear. By Amelie's request, Mariah and Ruth escape the torture of trying on multiple shirts and jackets to see what coordinates because they've been bought by people who aren't related to the other quidditch teams.

After half an hour of parading about like a model for my cousin, she decides. My captain hinted to Dom that Scorpius likes me in green and silver, so I'm wearing a dark green, knit sweater and a tight pair of jeans. I complain about the way the pants make my bum look as I play with the many, chunky silver necklaces that adorn me, but my cousin simply smiles and pushes me down on a bed and plays with my face and hair.

'Why are you all dressed up, Dom?' I ask as she moves about. 'Got yourself a date?'

'Hush, Rose,' She says, stilling my lips in order to paint them. 'It's Head's business. Eli and I are going into London for McGonagall.'

'Ah.' I reply before I'm shushed again, but observe her red face with satisfaction.

With five minutes to eight, Dom pushes me out of the dorm with a dark blue petticoat of hers. I'm fortunate enough to be wearing flat-bottom boots (no heels for me!) and dash to the Entrance Hall just in time. I smooth down my hair and catch a glimpse of Scorpius's platinum locks. He turns and smiles at me from the line of students waiting to leave.

'Hey.' I call out to him, pushing through the crowd.

'Hello, Rose.' He says, moving over so that I can stand next to him. 'I was afraid that you weren't going to show.'

'You paid sixty galleons for twelve hours with me. You're getting your worth.' I assure him with a smile. 'So, what do you have planned for today?'

He grins and removes a list from his pocket. 'Christmas shopping.'

'Already? Christmas is still more than a month away.'

'I need your womanly expertise on some of these gifts. Besides, if I get it all done now, then I won't have to worry about it later. It's brilliant.' He taps his temple smartly. 'I hate that rush before the holidays, when everyone is in a foul mood and the stores are out of stock.'

I nod, agreeing with him. It's absolutely horrid to shop for gifts for all of my relatives.

'Who do you need to shop for?' I ask, hoping that it isn't very many.

'My mother and father, grand-mother and father on both sides, aunt Daphne, uncle Blaise and a handful of cousins.' He says, reading the list. 'Shopping shouldn't take too long, so we can make some stops for ourselves: butterbeers at The Three Broomsticks, sweets at Honeydukes, visit the shrieking shack...' He trails off with a shrug. 'And tonight I figured that we could go to the library, for that potions essay.'

I nod and hand my permission slip to the caretaker. What Scorpius has planned sounds better than whatever Ruth is doing with those third-years. We catch a carriage with Mariah and her buyer, a Gryffindor boy that I believe is named Garrett, as well as a few stragglers without a companion for the weekend.

'At least you don't have quite so many relatives to shop for as I do.' I say, entering the small compartment. Mariah's eyes rest on me, calculating my every movement. I wonder if Amelie put her up to watching how Scorpius and I act around each other.

Scorpius laughs at what I said. 'I can only imagine how horrible that is!' His animation startles everyone else, but he takes no mind of it and settles on the soft cushioned bench rather close to me. The heat of his leg and arm pressed against mine causes a flush to rise around my neck and ears, and I thank the moderate darkness of the carriage for hiding it.

The rest of the ride is hot and quiet, and I'm glad when Scorpius helps me out onto the chilly, bustling main street of Hogsmead. We start at the quidditch store, something that I'm not against.

'I've two cousins to shop for here, Romeo and Sal Zabini, as well as my uncle Blaise.' Scorpius says, looking down at his list again. 'Can you see if there is anything around here with the Appleby Arrows logo? My uncle is obsessed.'

I search the racks for a few minutes before finding the team's newest jersey, pale blue in colour with a dark blue stripe across the chest and a silver arrow shot through a vibrant red apple. When I show it to Scorpius he's ecstatic.

'I'll owl aunt Daphne and ask her not to let him buy any of their new gear.' He carries it over to the counter with a broom care kit, also asking the shop keeper is they have any knee pads in stock.

While the man checks, I look through the racks near the shop windows. A flash of orange catches my eye and I peer outside, thinking that one of my cousins has run by, but the redhead is gone.

Our next stop is the bookstore, where Scorpius gets a healthy cookbook.

'Mum is always saying that we all need to eat better. Perhaps this will give her the incentive to cook better.' He says.

Scorpius is a perfect gentleman, and refuses to make me carry his bags, even when we spot Mariah and Garett outside of Honeydukes, my teammate's arms full of candy and joke bags. She scowls when I wave at her cheerfully. Her scowl transfers to my face when I find out where we're going next.

'Crystal?' I whine as he leads me down a less travelled street to the jewellery store, but I have no say in what we do today, so I follow him in. The pink walls and bright lights blind me as we enter. The woman behind the counter jumps up and immediately beings to badger Scorpius about what he's looking for, but he brushes her off easily. She then hovers, popping up every few minutes to ask if we need any help.

Scorpius makes me take off my jacket and necklaces, forcing me to try on different jewels for him to view.

He decides upon a diamond tiara for his aunt ('Where would she wear that?'), two similar, jewel incrusted, chain-link bracelets for his grand-mothers, one in emerald, one in amethyst, and a simple pearl necklace for his mum ('She'd avada me if I gave aunt Daphne jewellery and her a book.')

He goes to pay, complaining that he hasn't found anything for his cousin, Lacey Zabini, a fifth year Slytherin. I'm hardly paying attention because a beautiful pendant has caught my gaze. It's a delicate silver rose, hand crafted and sitting on a thin silver chain.

'What is it?' Scorpius turns, noticing my lack of input.

'Would your cousin like this?' I ask, pressing my finger against the glass of the case, wishing that I could run my fingers over the metal petals. 'It's gorgeous.'

'No,' He tells me. 'It is very nice, but Lacey likes things that _'pop'_, and that's rather simple.' I look up sadly to find him staring at me intently. 'Come on, I can ask my mum to order something from her dressmaker.'

As he thanks the woman for her help I think about the jewellery that I own: none. But I catch sight of the price of the rose, and it's a fair amount of galleons. Too many for me to pay for a simple necklace, no matter how pretty.

We go to the Hogsmead Post Office where Scorpius purchases a fine snowy owl for his father, and then to Honeydukes. While at the candy shop we buy the usual sweets: sugar quills, pixie puffs, liquorice wands and chocolate frogs, even though I've collected, with the help of my father, all of the cards. Scorpius also buys in bulk some Bertie Botts every flavour beans, revealing them to be his greatest weakness, and a ton of acid pops.

'My grandfather on my mum's side is addicted, but grandma never lets him buy them. He loves me for sending him them at Christmas.' He says, finally allowing me to carry some of his bags, the lighter ones though.

'Sounds like my grandfather as well, but he's a dentist so he hates all candy that causes harm to your mouth.' I tell him, popping a pixie puff into my mouth. 'I get him tooth-flossing string-mints. He loves them, but my grandmother thinks it's cheating and makes him floss double as much.'

Scorpius laughs. 'Are you cold yet?' I reply negatively. 'Good. I thought we might walk up to the Shrieking Shack.'

'Sounds like fun. It sucks though, that my family has ruined the experience of it.' I say as we begin our walk.

'How have they ruined it for you?'

'I know why it used to shriek.' He looks at me curiously. 'And I'm not telling you because it'll ruin the shack for you as well.'

'Please?' He whines, gripping my arm and pleading with his mesmerising grey eyes. 'If you don't tell me I'm just going to go ask Albus, you know.'

'Fine.' I give in, batting him away. 'But don't complain to me that I've ruined it for you. Decades ago, when our grandparents were at school, there was a group of four boys who called themselves the Marauders: James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. I think that we learned this much in History of Magic. Anyways–'

'Remus Lupin – would he be related Teddy Lupin?' Scorpius interrupts. 'That would make him to some degrees related to me.'

I never learned much about the Malfoy lineage, but I know that Narcissa Malfoy was a Black, as well as Andromeda, who is Teddy's grandmother, so I agree.

_'Anyways,_ Remus Lupin was a werewolf, and he had to hide his affliction from his fellow classmates so the school built this Shack with a tunnel inside that lead to the school grounds. At the other end they planted the Whomping Willow to keep people from finding the tunnel.' I say quickly to keep him from interrupting again. When I pause to breath Scorpius holds out a candy to me and I accept it. 'The shrieking sounds were Lupin's transformations.'

I smile and pop the candy into my mouth and am overcome with the most disgusting taste that has ever invaded my taste buds. I choke and cough and finally spit the small, beige sweet into the shallow snow at my feet.

'Merlin!' I cry, tears stinging my eyes. 'That was the foulest thing I've ever tasted!' Scorpius is rolling about, laughing his head off. 'You prat! Did you even listen to anything that I said?'

He stops laughing, wiping tears from his eyes. 'Of course I did. Ask Albus, I'm almost as big a know-it-all as you are. I had no idea that the bean would be so bad though.'

He's still laughing a little, but I'm distracted by a sudden movement in the bushes. Our wands are out immediately – the forest here is part of the Forbidden Forest, and you never know what could be lurking, waiting to munch on your bones.

'It's probably some couple snogging in the bushes.' Scorpius says, taking my hand and pulling me along the path, but he sends a stinging curse over his shoulder to the spot for good measure.

* * *

**A/n:** Next is the continuation of Rose's day.


	11. Rose is daring

**A/n: **The 11th chapter, the continuation of Rose's day.

* * *

_Rose_

After the shack we head to The Three Broomsticks, which is bursting with our fellow students. Scorpius manages to secure us a table and sweeps away to buy some butterbeers, refusing my offer to pay for my own. When he comes back he tips his drink towards a booth.

'You've caught someone's eye.' He says teasingly and I turn to see my cousins and captain watching me intently.

'I wonder what they did all day.' I say, sipping at my butterbeer, revelling in the feeling of heat spreading through my body.

'I don't know, but Perry doesn't look very happy.'

'She had to spend the day with my cousins – I hadn't expected her to. She despises James.'

'Who despises James?' Albus interrupts, suddenly appearing in the open chair to my right.

'Amelie.' I reply, narrowing my eyes at him. 'Were you sent over here to spy on us?'

'No,' Albus scoffs, punching Scorpius in the shoulder, a move that surprises both of us. 'Can't a bloke come say hello to his best mate?' I glare at him, watching with satisfaction as he crumbles. 'Well, maybe. Not spy though, James told me to come over here and break you two up. 'Getting too close,' are his words exactly. So, how was your day?'

'Great, mate, how was yours?' Scorpius asks, smiling at me over his butterbeer. I smile back and play with my near-empty glass.

'Alright, I guess. James made us run all over Hogsmead and we didn't even get any shopping done. I was hoping to at least make it to Honeydukes, but they're closed.' He steals Scorpius's drink and takes a swig.

'Is that why Amelie looks so sour?'

'Yeah, and James pushed her in a fair amount of snow banks.' Albus replies with a smile. 'I see that you guys got some shopping done though, stopped at every store in Hogsmead?'

'Almost, but I got my Christmas shopping done!' Scorpius says, waving his list in my cousin's face. He leans across the table for a high-five and I oblige.

'Brilliant. But you know that I'm going to drag you out to help me with gifts for all of my cousins next Hogsmead weekend.' Albus says, finishing off my drink. 'So, when are you two heading back to school? I'll go with you.'

Scorpius looks at our now empty glasses. 'Now, if that's alright with you, Rose.'

I nod and snatch my jacket, leaning close to Scorpius as Albus marches ahead of us.

'Does it seem at all as if he was trying to get us out of there?' I ask, watching my cousin's back.

'He drank nearly all of my butterbeer!' Scorpius complains. 'That's the best part of going to Hogsmead.'

I laugh and shrug it off, but my suspicions grow as James, Amelie and the rest of my cousins follow us to the carriages and insist on travelling to Hogwarts with us. My cousins are loud and rowdy, more so than usual, and there's hardly any chance to talk during the ride. I roll my eyes at Scorpius as he helps me out of the carriage and allow him to pass me some of the bags as we make our way up to the castle. My cousins struggle to exit the carriage behind us, each wanting to be the first out.

'So,' Scorpius asks me. 'Did you have a good day?'

He smiles down at me, hoping for a yes, eyes alight and lips turned up in a quirky way... I'm about to reply when a splash of snow hits the back of his head. He winces as the cold, wet substance slides down his neck and back and we both turn to glare at James. No one moves as I bend down and gather snow into two spheres.

'No.' I tell Scorpius, passing the snowball to him. 'I had a _great _day. And it's about to get even better.'

Together we pelt James in the face.

My other cousins, outraged at not being a part of our fight, quickly gather their own balls and begin to attack Scorpius and me. We take cover behind a large tree, dropping our bags and forming snowballs. But there are five of them, and only two of us. When it seems that all is lost, though, a group of small, Slytherin boys come flying out of a new carriage, see the fight, and join in. Their arrival distracts my cousins and allows us to regain our lost territory.

'Romeo!' Scorpius calls out to his own cousin, who has followed the boys out of the carriage. The Italian holds up a finger to signal one moment, and with the other hand he helps my teammate, Ruth, down the small steps. The pair stands there for a moment, watching our mini snowball war before choosing sides. Ruth is called by one of the Slytherin boys who is being pummelled by Fred and Romeo comes to stand beside Scorpius, dodging a ball thrown by Louis. He holds out a hand for me to shake, but the boy between us bats him away.

'Romeo, Rose. Rose, Romeo. Cousin, friend.' He says loudly over the shouts and cries of our opponents. 'Now make those prats eat snow!'

At some point we merge with the third years and Ruth, and James and Amelie break out into their own fight. Scorpius realises that we've been forgotten and nods his head towards the castle – a blessing because my hands couldn't have lasted another plunge into the freezing snow. We walk up to the school arm in arm, laughing about how James is being pounded to a pulp by Amelie and her wicked arm.

Scorpius gives me the chance to run to my dorm and change while he drops off his purchases. Not knowing what Dom would advise me to wear, I throw on a simple black skirt with a pair of warm knee socks, keeping the green sweater. My hair is as frizzy as ever from the snow, but I like it that way and I don't try to fix it.

Scorpius meets me in the Entrance Hall with his book bag and leads me over to the Slytherin table to his cousin. Romeo is still soaked from the snowball fight, but looks quite happy. He tells us about what we missed: how much ice Amelie put down James's shirt, how the Slytherins teamed up on Freddie and pushed him in the lake, how the rest of my cousins gave up due to the cold and left James and Fred to fend for themselves.

'So,' He asks when he's done with his stories. 'What are you two doing for the last two hours of your day together?'

'Rose is helping me with my Potions essay.' Scorpius says, passing me the rolls.

'You can do better than that, Scorp.' Romeo raises a brow. His cousin simply scowls.

It doesn't escape my notice that many girls are openly ogling the two boys I'm sitting with. There's something to be said about families: they share their looks. In my family it would be the famous red hair. In the Malfoy-Zabini family it would be good looks. Both Scorpius and Romeo are in a league of their own, the former being the cold, quiet, mysterious type, and the latter being open and bright. The difference between them is almost laughable. In looks it's the same: Scorpius with his platinum blonde, brooding grey and deathly pale, in contrast Romeo is varying shades of tanny brown.

During the meal I also notice Ruth sitting a ways down the bench, cleaning up after the four third years who bought her. She looks our way quite a few times, and each time I smile at her, but her eyes never meet mine. She's always looking a little to the left – to Romeo. I tuck this piece of information away for another time.

We take off to the Library, securing a pair of large, squishy armchairs in the back. It's very quiet, but that is most likely due to the fact that it's a Saturday night after a day in Hogsmead and everyone is retiring to their common rooms.

At some point while I'm explaining a portion of my own essay I look up to find him simply staring at me.

'Nothing is registering up here.' He admits after a moment, tapping his head. He looks at his watch. 'I've only fifteen minutes left of your time. Do you want to do something fun?' He pulls out a bag of dungbombs.

'Where did you get those?' I hiss, looking about for the Librarian. Possession of a banned item is worth a week of detention.

'Romeo gave them to me at dinner. I thought we could go find your cousins...'

I grin. My prefect responsibilities obligate me to give him a detention and take points, but then again...

'You've still got me for fifteen minutes.' I sweep my books into my bag. 'I'll do whatever you tell me to do.'

Five minutes later we're standing outside of the Gryffindor common room, dungbombs in hand.

'Merlin, if we're caught I'm doomed.' I tell him before telling the Fat Lady the password. All of the prefects know them.

Scorpius plans to stay outside, he's too recognisable, while I go in and search for my cousins. This task isn't very easy, the common room is packed with students of all years.

'Rose!' Julien calls out to me. 'What are you doing here?'

'Looking for my cousins! Have you seen them?' I reply, slipping the dungbombs into my pockets and hoping that they won't go off.

'Took over the sofas.' He tells me, nodding in the direction of a large crowd. 'They've got your quidditch captain, you know.'

I nod grimly. I wonder what they're doing to her. I spot a tapestry next to the fireplace that is perfect for me to hide behind and slip over to it. From there I can see Amelie and James perfectly. The prat is feeding her Bertie Botts every flavour beans – and not just any beans, his stash of suspected foul tasting beans. For years he has collected the one's he thinks will taste the worst based on the colour. I always wondered what he was going to do with them.

Amelie's face is screwed up in intense displeasure as she places a pale blue one on her tongue. All of my male cousins are there, laughing their arses off at her expression. It's now or never.

Looking around to make sure that no one has spotted me, I remove the dungbombs from my pockets. Winding up, I hope that Amelie never realises that it was me who ended her auction day with a big stink. I don't stick around to smell the rank success of my mission, sprinting to the portrait hole. Luckily, everyone I pass is more concentrated on what happened to my cousins to stop me.

Scorpius is there when I burst through the portrait and I take his hand, keeping up my pace all the way down the corridor and the next one. When I'm sure that we're not being pursued I pull him into a secret hall and collapse on the ground in a fit of giggles.

'I'm going to assume that it went over well.' My companion says, regarding me with an amused air.

'Perfectly.' I breathe looking up at him from the stone floor. 'My cousins are going to ring my neck if they find out that it was me.'

He laughs. 'Come on, I'll walk you back to your common room. Your twelve hours are done.'

During the walk to the Ravenclaw common room I recount to him what my cousins were doing to Amelie. He admits that he has a stash of the same kind. It must be a boy thing.

'Seeing as we didn't get our essays done, do you want to meet in the Library tomorrow? In the afternoon – I have practice.' He asks, handing me back my bag as the spiral staircase leading to my dorm comes into view.

'Sounds like a date.' I say, the last word rolling off my tongue before I can stop it_. _'After lunch?' I stop on the first step and turn to Scorpius, who is nodding in agreement. 'I had a lot of fun today, Scorpius.'

'So did I, we should do this again sometime.' He smiles one of those rare, uniquely Scorpius smiles, where he shows his teeth and his lips pick up in one corner and a dimple pops out in his left cheek. It's quite stunning.

After a moment I nod and offer a small, lame wave, rushing up the many stairs to the bronze door knocker. I wait a moment before entering, pressing my hands to my hot cheeks in hopes of cooling them.

_Sounds like a date._

* * *

**A/n: **Next we meet Coraline's mystery buyer.


	12. Coraline is embarrassed

**A/n: **In this chapter I introduce some of my favorite characters: Coraline's buyers.

* * *

_Coraline_

Marvel Jordan is an interesting sort of person. He's friends with the Weasley and Potter crowd, he's been bred by his father to be a pranking _artist_, and he's got half the school hanging off his every word. It might help that he's also a particularly good-looking boy, with his dark hair that's always in his shocking green eyes, tan skin and a muscular build. Everyone seems to love this boy. This is why I'm suspicious as to his reasons for buying me, Coraline Darcy, the most uninteresting person on the planet.

As I slide my bra strap onto my shoulder I scrutinize myself in the mirror. I'm a girl. Two arms, two legs, appropriate reproductive organs. My too-big nose is properly centered in the middle of my face, bellow a pair of uninteresting blue eyes which are decorated by all sorts of beauty products, and above two pink lips that never seem to say the right thing. My blonde hair falls straight, flat and in an averagely ordinary fashion. I'm awkward in my movements, gangly and self-conscious, and it's only after some long contemplation that I can think of something funny or witty, and usually when I do, the moment has passed.

Marvel and I are polar opposites, and we're going to spend the day together.

_Merlin save me, I'm going to make a fool of myself._

Well, thanks to Dominique Weasley, I'll at least look decent while doing so.

She gives me a pair of jeans – loose, to make my legs look less scrawny than usual – a Falmouth Falcons shirt from my own closet, with thick, grey and white horizontal stripes and a falcon on the back, and a dark jacket that zips diagonally which belongs to Nell and I'm rather fond of. To top it off I sneak my rash red, hand knit by yours truly, wool mittens and hat into my pocket before dashing down the stairs to the Great Hall.

I nod a hello to my captain as I pass her and the Wotter crew on their way out of the hall, my eyes resting on one particular head of brilliant orange hair for a moment longer than the others. He doesn't notice, he never does, and continues his conversation with a younger Weasley.

I want to kick myself as my cheeks redden and my eyes shift to the floating candles, pretending to find them fascinating, though the interest in them wore off back in first year when one drifted too close and poured wax on my unsuspecting eleven-year-old self.

Marvel is sitting with a group of people, consisting of some chattering girls, the Scamander twins and Julien Shoal. I stand off to the side awkwardly for a moment before Julien spots me and waves me over.

'Ready for today?' He asks me. 'We've been up all night compiling a list of things for Marvel and you to do.' I make a noise at this, unsure of how to respond to him. 'I hear that Rosie's been bought by Malfoy. James went bezerk when he came back to the common room after the auction, rounded up all of his cousins – the male ones mind you, seeing as all of the girls are against what he's planning. Fred was going to join you guys today, but he's been coerced into following Rose around Hogsmead with James.'

I look away and Marvel calls out. 'Julien! It's eight o'clock and you're cutting into my time with Coraline.' He shoos away the girls, slipping away from the bench to put his arm around my shoulder. The only thing that I can seem to think of at this moment is how I'm going to smell like his armpit.

Lorcan and Lysander Scamander and fall into step behind us as Marvel steers me out of the hall.

'Is Julien not coming with us?' I ask him as we enter the line of students leaving the school. Julien is the only Gryffindor boy that I've ever really felt comfortable with.

'Nah, he's got a date.' Marvel tells me. 'A Hufflepuff named Lila or something.'

We fall into uncomfortable silence.

His body odour is slowly seeping into the materials of Nell's jacket. She's going to murder me.

He still doesn't remove his arm from my shoulder when we enter the carriage. I end up squished on a bench with him and both of the Scamanders, but it isn't as bad at Ruth, who ends up across from us with two thirteen year old Slytherins on each side. When we arrive at the village, they scurry out first, and Ruth grimaces at me before chasing after them, stopping to pick up one of their lost hats.

Mavel finally lets me go in order to leave the carriage without tripping. I do anyways and he catches me, placing his arm back around my shoulder. I huff but don't say anything.

'Alright,' Marvel says, taking out of his pocket a torn piece of paper. 'Let's get started. First we'll go to Honeydukes. You're going to taste-test all of their new candies.'

'That doesn't sound too bad.' I tell myself. Due to his close proximity, Marvel hears me and laughs, surprising me.

'We'll see.' He says, looking at me with a puckish look on his face.

I was wrong. In celebration of Halloween, the candy store ordered the newest in scary sweets. I try the _Ghoul's Foot,_ which tastes as bad as it sounds and makes my tongue turn a sickly shade of green, and the _Spider's Nest_, which makes it feel as if thousands of spiders are scuttling around in my mouth. They also have new acid pops, flavoured with real pumpkin and with double the acid. That burns all of the taste buds off my tongue and ends the whole affair. Marvel ends up getting a bit of everything.

'Where to next? I ask, shifting his bags in my arms. He takes one and slips his arm around my shoulder.

'The Hogs Head. It isn't on the list, but I'm making an addition.' He grins. 'We're getting you some firewhiskey.'

'That's not allowed. We're underage.' I plant my feet firmly on the ground and place my hands on my hips.

He grins at the defiant expression on my face. 'Come on, love. Five minutes, one drink. No one will know. Besides, Aberforth is half-blind and won't refuse a customer. Tell him you're twenty-five and he won't be able to tell.'

He moves forwards, but I stay in place.

'Alright, I gave you the choice to come of your own free will, but it seems that you're going to be all stubborn. I bought you at the auction and you have to do what I tell you to.'

'There are restrictions.' I scowl at him.

'I read them – didn't say anything about getting a drink.' He winks at me and slips his hand into mine. 'Come on, it'll be fun.'

My mouth works as I try to find a new argument, but I'm done and he pulls me down the street, the Scamander twins still in tow. We leave the main street and skirt down an alley, finding ourselves standing outside of a dingy looking inn. The sign above the door reads _The Hogs Head Inn_, with a crude image of a severed pigs head below it. Marvel opens the door and ushers me through first. The inside of the inn is even dingier and dirtier than the outside, and the place seems deserted, apart from a very old man behind the counter that I presume is Aberforth Dumbledore.

'Hello?' He calls out, pausing to hack loudly. 'Who's there?'

'Just looking for a drink.' Marvel replies, pulling me over to the counter. 'One firewhiskey.'

'Aye, three sickles and a knut.' The man coughs into his hand then reaches for a large glass. He wipes the rim of it with a rag that is so filthy that it makes the cup even dirtier. Into the glass he pours a golden liquid from a bottle without a label. When he's done pouring, almost to the brim, I slide my hand across the counter and Marvel places the proper amount of coins in the old man's waiting hand.

'Down it goes, Coraline.' Marvel says, clapping my on the back. He settles back on a barstool to watch the show.

I sniff the drink carefully before raising it too my lips. I try not to let the dirty glass touch my mouth as the firewhiskey slips down my throat.

I've had alcohol before – I'm not quite the innocent little Ravenclaw brain you think I am – but never firewhiskey. The drink burns its way down my throat and makes my eyes water. I cough and hack, pounding a fist on my chest as the burning sensation hits my stomach and begins to spread. Finally, it subsides.

'Merlin, that's foul!' I gasp.

Lorcan and Lysander, who, up until this point, have been silent, suddenly burst out into loud laughter, surprising me. Lorcan, the twin with the bigger nose, recovers first and reaches for the glass, taking a gulp. He smiles at me and swallows without a hint of discomfort.

'Show off.' I mutter at him and he just smiles wider.

The boys pass the firewhiskey around and then the last sip returns to me. I try to down it in the same manner they have, but it hurts so much and I grip my throat and cough after just a second.

'So,' I ask, looking down at the empty glass. 'How much will two sips of firewhiskey affect me, do you suppose?'

The boys shrug. 'We'll just have to see.'

Marvel takes my hand again and we leave the inn. 'Let's go to Zonko's next.'

It's a short walk to Zonko's joke shop and soon the bell is dinging as we open the door. The shop isn't very full yet but we all recognise the boy at the counter.

'Fred!' Marvel calls out. 'Free from your cousin's clutches? Care to join us in showing Coraline the town?'

I blame my reddening cheeks on the alcohol.

'You know I'd love to,' He replies. 'But James is waiting for me. I just had to deliver a letter to Zonko from my dad. He wants to sell some of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes products here because he couldn't get a shop of his own.'

_Those are banned-_

It's on the tip of my tongue, but for once I'm able to hold it back. And then I choke on my spit and start coughing and hacking like crazy. Lysander steps forwards and hits me on the back several times until I raise a hand and groan: 'I'm alright.'

Marvel and Fred watch this all, trying damn hard not to laugh.

'Well,' Fred says after a moment. 'I've got to be off. See you tonight.'

He sidesteps us and heads to the door. I watch him leave, and it takes a moment for me to realise that my gaze is resting on his arse. I quickly turn away, hoping that no one noticed, attempting nonchalance and succeeding in knocking over a display of exploding snap games. I grimace and turn to see all three boys staring at me.

'What?'

'Were you just looking at my best mate's...' Marvel tries to find the appropriate words. 'Derrière?'

'He's got a nice arse.' I squeak, unable to stop myself.

_Bloody Merlin's pink frilly knickers – they're going to tear the mickey out of me! I'm going to be the laughing stock of the school! Why can't Fred's bum be less attractive?_

And they laugh.

'He's got other features that are nice too!' I tell them loudly, putting my hands on my hips and glaring at Marvel. 'Like his hair. I like red heads. And his eyes. They're very blue.'

Marvel recovers enough to speak. 'I'm not questioning what you like about the bloke – I'm wondering why, in the name of Merlin, you chose _that_ bloke. I mean, _Fred?'_

'Thanks.' I spit sarcastically. 'But I've already figured out how improbable the match is.' I glance at my watch. It's only noon. Eight hours left.

'You know,' Lorcan says, speaking for the first time today. 'It's not _that _improbable.'

We all stare at him.

'Yes, it is.' I contradict. 'He's _Fred Weasley,_ prankster, jokester extraordinaire. I'm _Coraline Darcy, _Ravenclaw brain.'

'No... Lorcan has a point.' Lysander says, contemplating me. 'Fred is a bloke. Coraline is gorgeous. He just needs some gentle prodding... And she needs at shit ton of help acting like a normal person.'

I glower at him.

Marvel grins. 'Challenge accepted! Boys, we're going to help Coraline snag our mate, Fred.'

'No – challenge not accepted!' I turn on him, waving my hands wildly. 'There is no challenge at all! Honestly, I could care less about him. It's just a tiny infatuation.'

'And when did this tiny infatuation begin?' Lysander asks, slinging his arm around my shoulder. Ew. More armpit sweat soaking into my jacket.

_Start of this year_. I want to tell them, but I can't bring myself to lie. 'Third year. When I tripped down some stairs and he helped me up and didn't jinx my books to tease me like I expected him to.'

'And he hasn't shown any signs of liking you back?'

'He's kind of oblivious.' I retort. 'And I haven't made it very obvious.'

Marvel sighs, then rubs his hands together. 'Looks like we have our work cut out for us. Let's get started.'

* * *

**A/n: **Next we hear from Ruth.


	13. Ruth is unimpressed

**A/n: **The finale to Coraline's day, plus the introduction of a charming Slytherin (there seem to be a lot of them, huh?).

* * *

_Coraline_

'Okay,' Marvel admits. 'Dinner didn't go so well.'

Didn't go so well?

_Didn't go so well?_

The fight against Voldemort _didn't go so well._ Dinner was a complete and utter disaster.

It all began as Fred sat down. I tried to cover up my surprise and happiness by reaching for a roll. And then in bringing my elbow back, I spilled pumpkin juice in Lorcan's lap. And I tried to clean it up with a napkin, forgetting that I'm a witch, which produced enough red cheeks and awkward looks. Next came the soup affair, where, after Fred told a funny joke, I laughed, snorted, choked, and spat a mouthful of soup across the table at Marvel. And of course, every other word that came out of my mouth made me sound like a demented loony. Fred took his chance and ran off as soon as possible.

'I'm going to lock myself in my dormitory until the end of term. Then I'm moving to Nepal to live with the monks. Hopefully Fred won't be able to find me there.' I groan into my arms.

The five of us – Julien joined us just before dinner and got filled in on the scheme – are currently squished into a small alcove with a window, discussing my inability to act normally.

'I thought that you were charming, Coraline.' Julien says, patting my arm in a comforting manner. I scowl at him. 'In a sort of loony way. Like Lorcan and Lysander's mum, Luna.'

My scowl deepens. Luna Lovegood-Scamander is crazy. I would rather not be compared to her.

'She makes really good pumpkin pie.' Marvel comments, as if trying to make me feel better.

'Thanks guys. But I think that Fred would be better suited with a completely normal, funny, sweet girl. I'm not any of those, so you can stop trying.' I sigh and glance at my watch, realising that there's only five minutes left of our auction day. 'I'm sorry that we didn't finish your list of things to do today...'

'S'okay.' Marvel replies, searching in his pocket. 'We made a new list anyways.'

He passes me a crumpled piece of parchment. There's only one thing written on it: _Get Fred to fall in love with Coraline._ I smile at him, genuinely touched by this, and lean over to give him a hug. He places his hand on my face and shoves me away with an eye roll.

'I haven't got anything better to do all year, and besides, this is going to be _hilarious._' He admits. 'Come on, as your last job of the day you can walk us to our common room.'

We slip out of the alcove and move on down the hall and up the moving staircases. The boys lead me to the portrait of the Fat Lady and turn to say good bye. Suddenly the portrait swings forwards and an orange haired boy flies out, crashing into me and knocking the two of us to the floor. I fight the limbs holding me to the ground, but stop when I smell the soothing scent of Fred Weasley's spicy cologne...

'Damn you smell good.' I hear, but it's not me that's said it. I freeze and he pulls away to reveal the very boy I've been mooning over for years.

'Fred!' I squeak, voice several pitches higher than usual. He looks down at me for a moment, then shrugs and returns to smelling my hair. I clear my throat and, with some serious self-restraint – my lips are just centimetres away from some prime snogging material and my biggest crush – repeat firmly: 'Fred.'

He pulls his nose from my hair and sighs against my neck before raising his eyes to meet mine.

'Sorry Coraline.' He says before jumping to his feet. He reaches out a hand to help me up, and I take it, revelling in the feel of his skin against mine. 'Someone set off a dungbomb in there and you smell like heaven right now.'

_Mmm... I smell like heaven?_

'Coraline?' Marvel asks, tapping my shoulder.

'Right,' I say, pulling my hand out of Fred's, realising that I'd drifted. 'S' – uh – alright. I mean, dungbombs suck.' I laugh awkwardly and curse inwardly. Time to tell a story which will most likely humiliate me, then dash. 'Once I was staying over at the Burrow and Albus filled my trunk with them. I couldn't get the stink out of my underwear. _Ever._'

Yep. Sufficiently humiliated. Now to make my escape.

'Oh yeah!' Fred laughs. 'We had to pool our clothes because your parents were touring France and you couldn't go home.'

'You remember that?' I ask, blushing.

'You looked quite striking in my quidditch jersey and boxers.' He winks at me, then turns to his friends, who are watching us with great interest. 'Well, mates, we should probably see if we can room with Moaning Myrtle until the dorms are fumigated.'

'Bye Coraline.' They chorus, leaving me standing in front of the Fat Lady portrait, who is holding her breath and looking a little green.

'See you in class.' Marvel winks, then follows the others down the hall.

I stand there watching their retreating backs for a moment before the stink of the dungbombs reach my nose. I send a pity-filled look at the Fat Lady, then turn and run off down the hall, feeling strangely content with how the day went.

* * *

_Ruth_

Boots? _Check._

Hat? _Check._

Signature Taytum scowl? _Check. Checkity-check-CHECK._

I glare over at Amelie as I leave our dormitory, but she's a little preoccupied cursing Potter's name. Personally, I thank him for buying her. At least one other girl on the quidditch team is going to have a shite day.

As I enter the Great Hall I snatch up a pumpkin muffin and take a large bite out of it, looking around the hall for the brats – ahem, lovely little Slytherins – who bought me. Finally I spot them amongst the other third years and step forwards, snatching the one with the dark skin and hair by his collar.

'Alright,' I say, spinning him around to face me. 'You bought me for the day, let's get it over with.'

He fights me off and taps three other boys on their shoulders before turning back to me. 'I'm Sal Zabini.' He tells me, puffing out his chest arrogantly. 'This is Perseus Flint, Gavin Dale and Steel Graham.'

Flint has dark hair, sly eyes and is wearing his school cloak over a sweater the colour of the inside of an avocado. Dale is a blonde with pasty white skin, and Graham has shaggy brown hair and is in desperate need of a shower. They all sneer at me in unison.

'Ruth Taytum.' I reply with my own sneer. 'Come on, let's go.'

They grin and rush towards the line of people waiting to leave the school, cackling like the evil snakes that they are. Graham shoves a young Hufflepuff out of the way and I help her up, clapping the boy upside the head.

'You won't get any brownie points with her in the future for stuff like that.' I tell him and he scowls at me.

We finally make it through the line to where the carriages are and the boys force me into the first one they see – which already has four people in it: Coraline and her buyers. They insist on squishing onto the remaining bench, with me in between Flint and Zabini. The snakes jump out before the carriage even stops, Dale dropping his hat on the ground as he charges towards Honeydukes. I rush after them, picking up the hat and scowling at all of the students who spare me a sympathetic look.

When the boys have bought several galleons of candy each, they pass me their bags and move on to the quidditch store.

'Next year, my cousin Scorpius is going to make me a chaser.' Zabini declares as we look at the new brooms. 'I'm going to take my brother's place on the team and we're going to win the cup.'

_Pht. Yeah right._ Is what I think, but I keep my mouth shut.

We move on to Zonko's and the boys pick up enough bags of dungbombs to stink up the whole school, and then on to The Three Broomsticks. They find a booth near the back and allow me to drop the many bags of tricks and treats they purchased.

'You're going to order us drinks.' Sal says, turning to me with a corrupt glint in his eye. 'We want firewhiskey.'

I raise a brow at him. 'You're thirteen.' I say.

'Thank you, wizard obvious.' He replies in an 'a-dhur' fashion that just makes me want to punch him. 'That's why _you're_ going to buy it for us.'

I tip my head to the side contemplating his order. 'Alright, fork over some sickles then. Firewhiskey isn't cheap.'

I make my way over to the counter, four handfuls of sickles jingling in my pocket. The aging Madame Rosmerta raises her brow at my sly grin and I'm quick to point out the Slytherins in the back.

'Give me four firewhiskeys. One part whiskey, three parts butterbeer.' I tell her, then think about it for a moment. 'Just make them all butterbeer, actually. They're third years, they've never been here before.'

She smiles at me and slips four butterbeers across the counter, accepting the money I press into her hand. I pocket the rest of the money with a smile and carry the drinks back to the table. The boys gulp down the drinks without a complaint, and I thank their parents for not introducing them to alcohol at an early age. After they're convinced they've drunk a pint each, we carry out into the streets.

'Wee!' Graham cries as he leaps off a wooden bench, startling a pair of elderly women.

_'Inflatus!' _Zabini is yelling, running around jinxing all of the students he sees. _'Melofors! Tarantallegra!'_

Flint is dancing some sort of horrible jig and Dale is making a snow angel and singing a song about pumpkin pasties. Eventually, they all end up on the ground in fits of giggles.

'We-hee-hee are so-ho-ho _drunk!'_ Flint shouts, throwing fist-fulls of snow into the air.

I plunk my bum down on a snow-covered bench near the boys and laugh my arse off at them. The prats think that they're drunk!

'What's going on here?' Someone asks from my left and I spin around, afraid of finding that Head Boy and Girl have come back early from their day in London. Instead I see a boy my age, with dark skin and hair, and a face similar to one of the third years.

'Romeo!' Zabini cries, 'Guess what!'

'What?' The boy asks, stopping next to me and sticking his hands in his pocket.

'No! Guess!'

The boy looks at the four snakes writhing on the ground, then turns to me. 'Did you give them alcohol?'

Zabini looks put out at him guessing right away, but Dale throws snow up in the air and it falls down on them and they all start laughing again.

The boy steps towards me with a raised brow and open mouth, but I hold up a hand to stop him. 'They aren't drunk.' I say. 'I gave them butterbeer and said that it was firewhiskey.'

He grins. 'I should have guessed that you hadn't broken a school rule, you are Ruth Taytum after all, a Ravenclaw.'

'You know who I am?' I ask, seriously puzzled. I always thought that I just sort of melted into the background, with Amelie being the quidditch obsessed one and Nell being the obscenely attractive one, leaving me to be the normal, forgotten one.

'Sure. You're a chaser on your house team.' He replies, taking a seat next to me on the bench. 'We have transfiguration together, but you always sit in the front of the class and answer questions, whereas I find the seats in the back to be more comfortable, and you were bought last night at an auction by my brother, who proceeded to spend an hour telling me, in great detail, about all of the things you were going to do today. By the looks of it, and the fact that you're here and not sitting in detention, I can see that they've only managed to do a few of the things they wanted to do.'

_'What?' _Is all I can say.

'What?' He returns. 'I'm sure that you know me...'

'Yeah, a Slytherin in need of a nice blow to his ego.' I retort sarcastically.

He snorts. 'Well, I was hoping for something more along the lines of _roguishly handsome_ or _positively charming_ or even-'

'Egotistical prat?' I raise a brow at him and he scowls.

'Well, I'm Romeo Zabini. I've been a Chaser on the Slytherin quidditch team since my second year and I have a thing for Defense Against the Dark Arts.' He holds out his hand for me to shake and I accept it, rolling my eyes. 'So, what have you guys been up to?'

I nudge the bags surrounding the bench. 'Honedukes, Zonko's... the usual when it comes to conniving little boys.'

'I get egotistical and they get conniving?' He laughs and shakes his head, placing a hand on his heart. 'Oh, how you wound me.'

I laugh too and swing my legs, looking at the four boys rolling in the snow in front of us.

'Well, I ought to get them back to the school before someone reports this.' I say, standing and picking up Dale's dropped hat.

'I'll join you,' Romeo says, snatching up his and his brothers bags. He takes a look inside of the younger's Zonko bag, finding the dungbombs. With a sly smile at me he snatches a handful for himself. 'He won't even notice they're gone.'

'Alright boys,' I say, dropping Dale's hat on his face. 'Let's head back to the school.'

There's some moaning and groaning, but with a few threats from Romeo we make our way to a carriage and pile inside. When we pull up in front of the school the boys roar with laughter at the scene before us. It seems that Potter and his cousins have teamed up on poor Rose and her buyer in a snowball fight. As soon as the carriage stops the younger ones fly out the door and begin to pelt all red-heads in sight. Romeo takes a moment to help me down the steps.

'Who are you rooting for?' He asks.

'Rose and Malfoy, all the way. Potter needs a face-full of snow.' I reply and both we laugh.

'Taytum!' Flint calls out to me as Fred Weasley tackles him to the ground and begins to shove snow down his jacket. With a flick of my wand, Fred finds himself flying through the air, landing near Graham and Dale, who kick snow in his face.

I send Romeo an apologetic smile and rush over to stop Fred from throttling the pair.

Upon my approach, the Gryffindor roars and lunges at my legs, taking me out. Graham and Dale laugh and join him in rubbing my face in the snow.

'Bah – you little buggers!' I cry. 'You traitors! I'm on your side!'

'Oh,' Dale thinks for a moment, then nods vigorously. 'Right!'

Together we manage to get Fred off of me, then we run like mad because he looks quite murderous.

We join up with Romeo and Rose and Malfoy, and we all laugh as Rose charms her snowballs to form themselves and smash her brother in the face. Her and Malfoy then scamper off, leaving us to deal with five angry Gryffindors. Well – four. Amelie and James seem rather distracted cleaning each other's brains out with snow.

While Romeo and I deal with Albus, Hugo and Louis, the four youngsters team up on Fred. They get him down on the ground and hold his arms behind his back, rubbing his face in the snow until he cries for Merlin. After that they march him down to the shore of the Black Lake, where ice has yet to form.

'This is – this is –' He splutters. 'Madness! Come on Taytum, you're in seventh year! This is when you step in and flaunt your superiority and _stop them!'_

I think for a moment – a very brief moment. I can feel snow seeping into my underwear from when he gave me a face wash.

'Dunk him, boys.' I say, laughing. His furious expression is the last I see of him disappearing into the freezing, black water.

'I was wrong about you, Taytum.' Romeo says, putting his arm around my shoulder. 'You could be a Slytherin.'

I can't decide if I like that or not.

The other three Gryffindors run for the safety of the school, leaving Fred to splutter and splash around. When he gets back on dry ground he points a finger angrily in our direction.

'Curse you!' He shouts. 'Curse all of you!' He marches up to the school without a backwards glance.

We follow him, the four younger Slytherins running on ahead, and the older one walking beside me.

'I'm going to glue this to your head, Dale!' I say as menacingly as I can when he drops his hat for the third time, but Romeo slips his warm hand into my frozen one and it feels good, so it comes out as a joke. When the boy comes to collect his hat he sticks his tongue out at me and I stick mine right back.

There certainly are some horrible Slytherins out there. Voldemort was one, after all. But I'm starting to realise that there are some nice ones too. Ones that aren't proud and conceited, or pompous and pratty and evil. And you know what? I think I'd like to get to know these nice ones a little better.

Starting with the one on my left.

* * *

**A/n: **Next we have Nell and Arne, joined by McLaggen (that guy doesn't take break) and we get a shock from Ida's buyer...


	14. Nell is girly

**A/n: **Here are Nell and Ida to fill you in on their days!

* * *

_Nell_

_Where is he?_ I wonder as I stand in the Entrance Hall, waiting for my buyer. Looking down at my watch, I realise that he's seven minutes late. _What I he already came down? What if he can't find me? What if he already found me, but thought that I looked so horrible that he didn't want to spend his day with me? How does my hair look? Frizzy? My make-up? What If I smudged it! Dom spent half an hour working on it! Do I look fat? I told Amelie that these jeans were too tight! What if he thinks I look bad? Damn it, since when do I care?_

On the verge of a melt-down, Arne Corner finally finds me. I'm so relieved that he came that I nearly launch myself into his arms and thank him. Somehow, I remain poised and dignified.

'Sorry that I'm late.' He says sheepishly as he leads me over to the line of stragglers making their way to the carriages. 'Klause spent an hour trying to drill into me that _fraternising with the enemy_ – yourself – is bad.'

'McLaggen is a prat.' I announce, scowling.

'He's my best mate.' Arne smiles at me.

'Oh- ' I say, trying to think of something nice to say about him instead, but I can't bring myself to lie. 'That still doesn't remedy him of being a prat.'

'Yeah, I know.' Arne runs his hand through his hair in a nervous fashion. 'He's alright most of the time, but when it comes to quidditch or you he's a downright git. He told me last year that you pushed him out of a tree house and broke his nose. Half the time I can't tell if he's being serious or not.'

'Erm, that time he was serious.' I say, biting my lip and grimacing a little when he turns to me with a questioning look and helps me into an empty carriage.

'And the time he said that you charmed his underwear to sing Celestia Warbeck songs non-stop?'

'In my defence, he baked spiders into a pie and brought it to a family dinner. He is just as childish as me!' I cry.

'I am well aware.' Arne laughs, then pauses. 'Would it be cruel as me as his best friend to tell you a little secret of his?'

'No! Never!' I say, leaning in close. The carriage jostles as it starts to move and his fringe brushes my cheek. 'Tell me everything.'

He smiles at me. 'Well, for one he's really afraid of frogs. Like, wet his pants afraid.'

I smile. Nine-year-old me might have had something to do with that.

'He's also really paranoid about people seeing him in his shorts. You know that dream that everyone has where they go to class in their underwear? He lives in fear of that ever happening to him.'

'Huh, you'd think that it'd be the opposite with McLaggen. Have you ever questioned his sexual orientation?' I ask, sitting back and raising a brow.

'Klause is no pouf.' Arne laughs, and then becomes serious. 'And if you ever decide to use the information I just confessed to you in any way, shape or form, I will deny vehemently that we've ever spoken.'

I mime the action of locking my lips and throwing away the key.

Our carriage shudders to a stop and we hop out. The cold air bites at my hands and cheeks and I pull up my scarf and search for my mittens, but Arne suddenly takes my hand and drags me into the quidditch store. When he releases me I shove my hand in my pocket and try to ignore the tingles that remain.

'I think they have it…' He trails off, fingers skimming the covers of the magazines next to the counter. 'Here,' He says, pulling one out after a little searching. 'I noticed that you were flying on a school broom during our match, and I thought that you might want your own broom. This magazine is good, it advertises them properly – some others rage on about things that aren't even important, like the colour of the wood.'

I smile warmly as he passes it to me. 'Thanks Arne. I've been thinking about getting one for a while now, but I don't really know anything about them.'

'Well, _The Nebula_, on page thirteen, is a good one.' He helps me turn the pages to a sleek, dark-wood broom. 'It's got great acceleration. There are others in here too – you know what, I'll just buy it for you to read.'

The clerk watches, laughing a little, as I argue with Arne and try to wrestle the magazine out of his hands. He's taller than me though, and Arne reaches over my head to pass the clerk the money owed. He tucks the magazine under his arm then and takes my hand again, steering me out into the street. I allow him to pull me around, stopping for sweets at Honeydukes and tricks at Zonko's. Our final stop is the Three Broomsticks, where Arne lets me pay for two butterbeers and a plate of fries, and we sit down to look through my new broomstick magazine.

'This one is nice looking,' Arne says, leaning towards me and tapping the picture of a broom called _The Skyscraper_. 'But it isn't sensible for a chaser – it has absolutely no shock resistance. If you were hit with a bludger, it wouldn't survive. It's better for a beater because they hardly ever get hit.'

'What about _The Boomerang?' _I ask, flipping the page.

'The handling is superb, and it corners well…' He reads the paragraph written about the broom. 'I think that it would be perfect for a chaser.' He smiles up at me. 'But you might not want to take my opinion of this. I am _the competition_ after all…'

'Merlin!' I laugh. 'You sound like Amelie. She's always going on about that sort of thing.'

'Klause too, _get your head in the game, stop getting distracted!'_ Arne imitates his captain, then stops. 'There he is at the door now! Should I wave, or pretend not to see him and then we'll sneak out?'

I'm about to cast my vote, for the latter, but McLaggen spots us and calls out.

'Arne! There you are mate!' He squeezes through the crowd, then stops at our table and finally notices me. 'Oh, so you did go out with Dortan.' There's bite in his voice.

'Of course, I paid for it.' Arne replies airily. 'Won't you sit down?'

McLaggen pauses for a moment, then sees my frantic expression and plants his rump in the seat opposite mine.

'So, what have you two been up to?' He asks, taking a fry and dipping it my butterbeer. I roll my eyes, it's the only way he eats fries.

'You know, the usual.' Arne shrugs.

'No Puddifoot's?' McLaggen presses, brow raised.

'Of course not.' Arne scoffs. 'Last time I went in there I was choking up confetti for weeks.'

'You're right. Besides, Dortan really isn't _that _kind of girl. She doesn't do glitter or dainty tea cups, or anything girly whatsoever. Puddifoot's would probably give her a heart attack.' McLaggen speaks as if I'm not even there.

'Excuse me?' I cut in. 'I can be girly! I can do glitter and tea and confetti and all that shit!'

'Girls don't cuss.' McLaggen reprimands me. 'Girls sit there and look pretty and keep their traps shut. You couldn't do that even if you tried.'

I hiss at him and he looks a little scared.

'Come on, it's been a nice day, let's not fight.' Arne says, placing a hand on both of our arms, trying to calm us.

'Take me out.' I say, surprising both of them. 'Take me to MadamPuddifoots.'

McLaggen stares, and then smirks. He pours butterbeer over the remaining fries and scarfs them down in a matter of seconds. We stand together and put on our jackets, then turn to Arne expectantly. He gapes at us.

'Are you coming?' McLaggen asks.

'As long as you're paying.' Arne jumps to his feet, sliding his arms into his jacket and slipping his hand into mine. If McLaggen notices, he doesn't comment.

When I open the door to the ghastly pink teashop, I'm greeted by an explosion of little confetti hearts that cling to my hair and clothes and enter my esophagus, inducing a coughing fit. The room isn't particularly large, crowded with tables and loveseats and poufs for people to sit on, and in the corner there is a violin and a harp and a piano, all of which are carrying a tune of their own accord. Everything is a different shade of pink. It hurts my eyes and my brain.

I nearly turn around to leave the place, but Arne has his hand on the small of my back and he leans close to whisper in my ear: 'Come on Nell, show Klause that you can handle this.'

I gather my courage and step forwards, an overly sweet smile on my face, to talk to the elderly lady at the counter.

'Table for three.' I tell her. 'Please.'

She surveys our trio with a raised brow, then gathers some menus and leads us through the maze of tables to one in the back near a large fern.

Are ferns romantic? I always thought they looked a little like leafy spiders.

The lady removes one seat from our table and the boys take the chairs next to each other, forcing me to sit next to the spider-fern. She turns to me then, quill poised over a pad of pink parchment, waiting for us to order. I look down at my menu but find that I don't recognise anything there. Is it too much to ask for a simple butterbeer and fries?

'Um, could you give us a minute?' Arne asks, equally lost.

She sighs, obviously irritated with us, but moves on to another table.

I'm about to comment on the fact that for a place that's supposed to be all hearts and love, she's got a rather foul personality. But then I meet McLaggen's gaze. He's waiting for me to say something.

'It's nice here, isn't it?' I say instead, not even a little hint of sarcasm in my voice. Both of the boys seem surprised. 'So, what are you going to order?'

'Orange spice tea with a piece of their white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.' McLaggen replies. It's my turn to look surprised. He throws his menu down on the table and shrugs. 'I've been on enough lousy dates here that I know what's good and what's not.'

Arne raises a discreet brow at me, then looks down at his menu. 'I guess I'll have a… fruit tart? Yeah. And coffee. What about you, Nell?'

'I was thinking lemon ginger tea and some of that chocolate cake.' I say nodding my head towards the tasty treat sitting on the counter.

'It'll go straight to your _hi-ips_.' McLaggen says in a sing-song voice, then hails the waitress and relays his order. I purse my lips and glare at him under my fringe, then smile sweetly at the woman.

'An extra-large serving of that chocolate cake there.' I say when she asks about my dessert. She stares at me for a moment – I don't blame her, every other girl here is eating a fruit salad – but complies.

'Mmm…' I moan, slipping my first bite onto my tongue, savouring the taste. 'That's heavenly.' Nearly everyone in the room watches as I slowly press another forkful of cake past my lips, looking up at McLaggen through my eyelashes as I do so.

He glares at me.

I return with a sugary sweet smile and another bite.

Merlin, he's fun to toy with.

I make sure to stick out my pinkie finger as I sip my tea, and that the cup and saucer never clank together, and that my face is never dirty. My napkin is folded neatly in my lap and I don't spit out my tea on the fern next to me when I accidentally choke on a tea leaf.

Well, I do. But I wait until McLaggen isn't looking.

By the end of the meal he's getting antsy and it's pretty obvious that he wants to get out of there. He helps Arne into his jacket before nearly pulling him out of the shop, not before paying though, as he promised.

'So,' I ask Arne as McLaggen scampers on ahead, never going too far though. 'Have I proved myself? Am I dainty and girly enough for you?'

'You don't need to be. I like the Nell who kicks Klause's arse in everything he does and looks mighty fine after a rough quidditch practice and does what she wants when she wants.'

'That's good,' I tell him, slipping my hand into his. It feels good. 'Because she's sticking around.'

I aim a kick at a small rock and it sails through the air for a moment before hitting McLaggen in the back. He turns around, glares at me, then flips me the bird.

Nell: 1

McLaggen: Nil.

* * *

_Ida_

'Mmm…' Vicker closes his eyes and savours the taste as he pops sweet after sweet into his mouth. 'You have _got_ to try these.' He shoves a handful of chocoballs in my direction and I shake my head.

'Vicker–' I begin.

'Call me Damon. It's my name after all.' He searches in another candy bag. 'How about some Drooble's blowing gum? It creates bubbles that don't pop for days!'

'No thanks, Damon–'

'How about a chocolate frog then? No one can deny a chocolate frog.' He waves one under my nose.

'Fine!' I cry, snatching it up. He looks immensely pleased with himself. 'Damon!' I grab his arm as we come to a stop next to Zonko's joke shop and I pull him down on a bench. 'I need to ask you something.'

He looks at me with his wide, deep blue eyes, dark fringe falling into them and pouts a little, glancing between me and the joke shop.

Gods. Since when are Slytherins such lookers?

'What is it?' He asks me as I fumble to regain my ability to speak.

'Iwantedtoknowwhyyouboughtme.' I ask all in one breath. He looks over at me, surprised.

Well. This is awkward.

Not that that's any different from the rest of our day.

I don't know Damon Vicker. He's in Slytherin. He's a chaser. That is the extent of my knowledge. So meeting him by the marble staircase because he bought me for a day for thirty-five galleons was a little strange. We didn't talk the entire ride to the village, and into the first store. Well, he tried to talk. About school. As soon as he brought up the topic, I flushed a horrible red and stumbled over my reply of: 'Of course I'm good in my classes, I'm a Ravenclaw after all.' Then I brought up quidditch and he rambled on for a while about his favorite team, the Montrose Magpies. When we entered Honeydukes the conversation died, thankfully, as we roamed around the shop tasting the new sweets.

But it's been growing in the back of my mind, the question of why did he buy me, like an itch I can't scratch no matter how hard I try.

'Well,' He beings. 'I was at the auction with my mates. They're the type who would buy you in order to make you their servant. It's Evert's turn to clean the bathroom and he keeps putting it off. Anyways, they were bidding on you and I figured that you wouldn't want to spend the day cleaning, so I joined in. So, I guess you could call me your knight in shining armour.'

'Hmm, well, thanks.' I stand and nod my head at the joke shop.

'Not to say that there weren't other reasons,' He says, chasing after me. 'I mean, you looked like you were a nice girl, and you've got nice legs, and my mum always told me to talk to someone new every day.'

'What?' I turn on him, wondering if I'd heard him right.

'What?' He mimics me, then moves on to an exploding snap display.

I look down at my jean clad legs. _Maybe I should have worn a skirt…_

'I'm going to get a deck.' Damon announces, tapping the pack of cards in his hands. 'My mates keep stealing mine.'

I go to stand next to him as the clerk rings up the deck. 'My mum always told me not to talk to strangers.'

'I'm hardly a stranger, if you're using that as an excuse for why you've hardly spoken a full sentence to me since we left the castle.' He nudges me, laughter in his eyes.

I scoff. '_Hardly a stranger?_ I hadn't even heard of you before last night.'

'Well then, stranger, let me introduce myself. My name is Damon Fallon Vicker and I'm a seventh year Slytherin at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.' He tries to take my hand to kiss it, but I evade him by quickly moving to collect the deck of cards the clerk is holding out, an amused expression on his face.

'I like just about every sweet there is at Honeydukes, I play as a chaser on the Slytherin quidditch team,' He tells me, following me out of the store. 'And my best subject is Ancient Runes.'

'_You_ take _Ancient Runes?'_ I exclaim, turning around to point a finger at his chest.

'Yes indeed. Is that so remarkable?' He quirks an eyebrow at me.

'Yes! Yes it is!' I poke him in the chest with each word. 'Ancient Runes is the hardest course at Hogwarts! That's – that's not fair! I flunked out!'

He seems crossed between showing offence or pride. In the end he puffs out his chest and grins at me, linking arms with me and starting off down the street.

'Now I know three things about you, other than your name and house.' He says.

'What else do you know about me?' I ask, confused.

'I know that you like butterbeer and long, romantic walks on the grounds.' He smiles, still immensely proud of himself.

I snort. 'That would be Amelie's doing. I had no say in my advertisement for the auction.'

He scowls. 'But you wouldn't be against a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks, would you?'

'No, you got that one right.'

'Good, that's our next stop.' He guides me into the crowded inn and secures us two stools at the counter. 'Two butterbeers, please.' He asks the woman serving drinks. He then pulls out his pack of cards and begins to shuffle them. 'Well then, if you don't like long romantic walks on the grounds, you owe me one personal detail.'

'What do you mean?'

'Well, you know three things about me, and I only know two about you, so I figure that I'm in the right to ask you for one more.' He shrugs and starts dealing out cards.

'Well I…' I'm at a loss for something interesting to say.

'I like the colour orange.' He says, passing me a pile.

'Stop it!' I swipe at him. 'Now I owe you two!' He opens his mouth to input. 'My favorite colour is razzmatazz – after the 1993 crayon! And I like the smell of – of apricots!'

'… Apricots?' He raises an eyebrow.

'It was the first thing that came to mind!' I stare down at my cards. My best cards are a cyclops, a giant squid, a manticore, and some old man with a crazy beard. His name reads Nicholas Snaggs. I sigh. They're crappy cards.

He chuckles and plays a card much higher than any of mine, and I lose my cyclops to him.

It's busy at the inn, and by the time we get, and finish, our butterbeers, it's nearly five. We get through two rounds of exploding snap in this time, me losing both times. We shuffle back to the carriages, hands frozen from the chilly air and feet from the slush-covered ground.

'So,' I ask him as we plough our way up to the school. It's begun to snow and the flakes are falling heavily. 'When is your next match?'

'About two weeks – the last match before the holidays.' He says, brushing snow from his hair. 'We play Gryffindor. When's yours?'

'I don't know. A while still. I think we play Gryffindor.'

'Hey! Damon!' From inside the Entrance Hall calls a voice. The doors are cracked open and students are filtering into the school, but one boy is quite intent on coming out. He pushes past a pack of third years and flies down the steps towards us. He slows and stops, pushing his hair out of his eyes to get a proper look at me.

'So this is Ida Winters in person!' He crows, leaning close and smiling. 'How much did you pay for her again? Thirty?'

'Thirty-five.' Damon wraps his arm around my shoulders and steers me up the steps.

'And was she worth it?' The other boy keeps pace with us.

'Yeah, we had a lot of fun, didn't we, Ida?'

I nod numbly, keeping an eye on this other boy. His hair keeps getting in his eyes, and he keeps flicking it away.

'Why don't you just get it cut?' I ask him.

'What?'

'Your hair. Why don't you just cut it, if it bothers you so much?'

He grins and shoves his hands in his pockets. 'It looks best this way. More rogue. The girls love it.'

'What girls?' I quirk a brow at him.

'The girls.' He waves a hand dismissively.

'I guess I should introduce you,' Damon says. 'Ida, this is Evert Fells. He's kind of a prat.'

'But I'm his best mate, so Damon puts up with it.' Evert smiles. 'Are you two eating at the Slytherin table tonight? The others want to meet Ida.'

'The others?' I turn on Damon. 'Why?'

Neither one of the boys answers me.

We enter into the Great Hall and I find in unnerving to turn to the left to reach the Slytherin table, instead of the right, to the Ravenclaw one. I'm lead down the aisle to a group of seventh years, who all stare at me as we approach. Evert hops the table, earning a disapproving stare from his Head of House, and Damon pulls me down beside him into an empty space.

There are four of them, two boys and two girls. They scrutinize me and I self-consciously draw my jacket closer.

'This is Hans Aunst,' He gestures to the dark haired boy directly across from me. His green eyes flit over me, but don't really seem to look.

'Niles Charlemagne,' The blond boy on his other side leans across Damon to shake my hand, seeming ten times friendlier than Hans.

'And Amity and Posy Thorn.' The former smiles pleasantly from her spot beside Hans and pushes her waves of lovely auburn hair from her eyes. The latter, who I assume is her twin sister, scowls at me from beneath her bangs.

'So, this is the great _Ida Winters?'_ Posy sneers.

'Oh, piss off Posy.' Amity says. 'It's nice to meet you. Damon has told us so much about you.'

'Oh?' I ask, severely confused.

Posy attacks her meat and mutters angrily, just loud enough for me to hear. 'Why wouldn't he? You are his girlfriend after all.'

* * *

**A/n:** I may be biased towards Slytherins. I find that I like them so much! But what is Damon up to?  
First upload from university!


	15. Ida is angry

**A/n: **Tada! I couldn't leave you hanging after Damon's big reveal.

* * *

_Ida_

'Girlfriend?' I cry, startled by what Posy has muttered so angrily. Damon wraps his fingers around my wrist, holding me fast.

'Darling,' He coos and I narrow my eyes at him. What game is he playing at here? 'I know that you hate to put labels on things, but I want people to know how l feel about you.'

He gives me a pleading look, with puppy-dog eyes and everything.

'I had no idea we were on that level yet.' I grind out, digging my nails into his arm as he tightens his grip on me.

Amity senses that this is a private conversation and she places her hand on Hans's shoulder, pulling him away. Posy complains, _we were here first,_ but she follows after them. Niles is already half way down the aisle.

'Vicker–' I begin.

'Call me Damon.' He replies, a guilty look spreading across his face.

_'Vicker.'_ I stress. 'What on _earth_ is going on?'

He runs a hand through his hair. 'This really is a funny story, you know. We're going to laugh about this when we're older…'

'If you don't tell me this instant, you're not going to get any older.' I hiss savagely, twisting his arm until he gasps.

'_Alright_, I told them that you were my girlfriend.'

'Why?' I respond, hands flying wildly. 'I don't even know you!'

'That's why! I don't know you, and neither do my friends!' He grins, seeming quite pleased with himself. 'Listen. Posy and I dated last year. We broke it off, but she's turned into a right bitch recently because she still has feelings for me. I figured that if she saw me moving on, she might do the same. And that's where you came in. I heard that your quidditch team was holding an auction and I took a liking to your picture on those posters. You were the perfect fit. My friends had never even heard of you before! So I told them that we'd seen each other around and things just sort of fell into place. They bought it, so I bought you in order to keep up appearances.'

'And were you ever planning on telling _me?'_

'Well… things worked out in the end, didn't they?'

'That is the worst plan I've ever heard!' I explode. 'And I've featured in enough of the Weasley clan's pranks to know a rotten idea. Did you ever think that maybe Posy wouldn't take you moving on very well? She's a witch with a wand and large repertoire of hexes after all. Or did you ever fraction into your plan that perhaps I wouldn't go along with this? Because I'm not.'

'And why not?' He demands, the pleased looked he'd taken on slipping off his face. 'Please, Ida, it's just to get Posy off my back. Three months. Four at most. I'll pay you back in whatever way you want–'

'Whatever way I want?' I ask, my anger with him dissipating.

'Yes, yes,' He nods, taking my hand in his and looking incredibly grateful. 'Anything at all.'

He doesn't seem to realise that he's just sold his soul.

* * *

_Amelie_

I can see it now.

His jet black hair running through my fingers… as I tear it out by the roots.

'Flipin – crapin – he's the most _insufferable_ – Merlin, he's the prattiest–' I storm about throwing books and pillows and anything else that I can get my hands on.

Dominique Weasley pulls me down on a bed and attacks me with a mascara brush.

'Why are you even bothering?' I screech, fed up with all of this beautifying. 'I'm spending the day with _Potter_.'

'And?' Dominique asks, gripping my face between two well-polished nails. She's as fed up with me as I am of this. 'You never know with my cousin. This could all be a ploy to get you alone somewhere to snog you.'

That stuns me into silence.

'Voila.' She finishes with a flourish.

'No.'

'No… what?'

'There's no way in _hell_ the Potter is going to snog me. _Ever.'_

She rolls her eyes at me. 'What did he tell you at the auction?'

'To wear something warm and easy to move in.' I pull at the thick leggings I'm wearing. They're black and I can't help but worry over the fact that my thighs seem huge in them. 'Are you sure these will be warm enough?'

'Yeah, you'll be fine.' Dominique fishes around in my closet for a moment before procuring my old navy pea coat and throwing it at me, along with a cream coloured hat and pair of mitts. 'You might want to get going. It's nearly eight.'

Dammit. I was hoping to find a suitable excuse not to go by this point.

I pull on my boots and trudge – yes, _trudge –_ down to the Great Hall, eyes finding Potter's fat head after just a moment's searching. I plow through the crowds towards him and plant myself on their bench, selecting a scone and buttering it before turning my eyes on the crowd of Wotters. There's a blond boy, Louis Weasley, a red head, Fred Weasley, a brunet, Hugo Weasley, and two black haired boys, the two Potters.

Albus nudges Potter when he realises that I've arrived.

'Alright, Perry,' Potter towers over me with his hands on his hips, trying to state some sort of dominance. 'This is how today is going to work. We're going to follow Rose and Malfoy around – and you're not going to get in the way alright?'

I roll my eyes at him.

'Alright gang, let's move out!' He takes the scone from my hand and throws it down on the table, then grabs my wrist and drags me down the hall. His male cousins follow after us.

'Circe, Potter, you're one of the most controlling people I've ever met. How you can maintain a relationship with any of your fan-girl girlfriends is beyond me.' I inform him, trying to roll my shoulder back into place as he wrenches me this way and that.

'Girls like it when you're controlling.' He tells me, smirking in a way he seems to think is alluring. 'They find it sexy.'

As we wait in line with the other students leaving the school, he winks at a girl in a younger year and she responds with a smile over her shoulder.

'Gag me, please.' I can't help but say, just loud enough for the girl to hear. She gives me a dirty look and turns back to her friend. I could care less, and go about mimicking vomiting. One of the cousins, Louis, laughs loudly.

'Shut it Perry.' Potter growls.

I scowl at him. 'What if I don't?'

'I bought you. If you don't do what I tell you to, I'm taking back my money.' He returns. 'So shut it.'

'If I remember correctly, all five of you contributed to the money pool. You all have a say in what I do.' I turn my gaze on the Weasley crew behind us. 'Do you boys think that I deserve to be silenced?'

They exchange glances.

'No.' Fred speaks up. 'In all honesty, I think that you're funny. You drive James insane.'

The others nod in agreement.

'So, I can keep my voice?'

They shrug.

'Bloody – you know what – traitors, that's what you lot are.' Potter grumbles, pulling me forwards and handing the caretaker his slip.

We pile into a carriage and ride in awkward silence to the village. Once we're there, Potter tells us to scout for Rose. The boys move like spies, creeping down the street, doing ninja rolls. I shove my hands in the pockets of my pea coat and follow after them. Fred finally spots them in the quidditch store.

'Quick,' Potter shouts, 'Into the alley – we can wait for them to come out without being seen!'

He grabs me by the wrist again and pulls me into the alley, shoving me in the snow bank and turning to peer around the corner. From my spot on the ground I kick his butt with my snowy boot, earning an eyebrow wiggle. It makes him look like he's got a caterpillar on his forehead.

'There they are!' He hisses after a moment, charging out into the street after them.

Rose and Scorpius stop in at nearly every store in the village – and Potter doesn't let us enter any of them.

'It'd be too suspicious, all of us wandering about the same shop as them. She'd know something was up.' He reasons.

Because of this reason we find ourselves freezing our arses off in the alleys in between the old buildings.

'This is it!' Potter cries as Scorpius leads Rose away from Hogsmead. 'He's taking her into the woods to snog her – or shag her!'

'Or to see the Shrieking Shack.' I tack on. He gives me a look that reads _as if_.

Potter insists on trekking through the deep snow and the bushes on a ridge above the trail that Rose and Scorpius are walking on. His cousins and I grumble as our hands and feet become cold and our noses run, but Potter will not budge after he's set his mind on something.

'They've stopped!' He whispers, throwing out his arms to stop us, peering around a thick tree down at the pair. 'Look! Wait, is she choking? Oh no! _Malfoy is killing our cousin!'_

He lurches forwards, intent on saving his cousin and I snatch the back of his jumper as he begins his descent. Our feet slip on ice at the top of the ridge and we tumble down the slope, head over heels. We crash into some bushes at the bottom, stopping our rolling. There's snow in my boots, down my pants and up my shirt; and a heavy body squishing the oxygen out of my lungs.

'Get off of me, Potter!' I wheeze. 'I can't breathe!'

'Zip it Perry!' He replies, slapping a hand over my mouth. He elbows me in the stomach and kneels on my thigh as he tries to move into a better position to see Rose and Scorpius. The bush we're laying in shakes with his every move, drawing their attention.

'It's probably just some couple snogging in the bushes.' Scorpius says and I gag at the thought of it.

'Move your fat arse.' I complain. Potter moves away, but a hex flies through the bush, hitting him in the side. He cries out and falls down again, elbows digging into my chest.

'Oomph.' I say as the air is squeezed out of me.

This is the position in which the Wotter crew finds us: me wheezing and groaning as Potter rolls around on top of me, clutching his side in pain.

'Once you're done feeling her up, James,' Fred asks. 'Can we go back to the village? I'm craving a butterbeer.'

Potter jumps up at this and glares his cousin down.

'Freddie!' He cries. 'That's revolting.'

The boy shrugs. 'So, butterbeer?'

'Alright.' Potter grumbles, nudging my side with his foot and barking: 'Get up.'

Albus gives me a hand as his brother storms off down the trail in the direction of the village. I fall into step beside the younger boy as we shuffle on.

'Is he always so bloody irritating?' I ask him.

'No – only when you're around. I don't know anyone who gets under his skin like you do.' Albus admits, watching his brother's back. 'It's quite funny, really.'

'Not for me – he's a right arse.' I tell him, huffing, watching my breath form in the chilly air. It's getting colder. 'So… you keep for Slytherin, right?' I say, my mind, as always, turning to my favourite sport. 'It's kind of hard to tell who that green speck is at the other end of the pitch when I'm defending my hoops.'

He looks at me warily. 'That's right. I hope that you're not snooping for details about our plays. I'm loyal to my team and won't be swayed by a pretty face.'

'Oh? I'm sure I could find _one_ girl who could convince you otherwise.' I think of Coraline, or maybe Ida. 'No matter, I've got an in to your team already. But, the Gryffindors…' He snaps his head up from the ground. 'Maybe you know something about your brother...?'

We both look ahead to Potter who has snapped a branch off a tree and is angrily swiping at the ground. Hugo taps him on the shoulder and nearly gets swiped in the face.

'No.' Albus says resolutely, then he wavers. 'Well – he's changing his lines up. It used to be him as the leading chaser, Lysander following and Lorcan defending. Now Lorcan is following. And Hugo used to stay on the opposing side of the pitch to beat, but it's Fred now.' He bites his lip. 'I don't know why he did it – they seem sloppy during practice.'

I ponder the change as we trek back into the village. We stop at the Three Broomsticks and Albus holds the door for me. One of the Weasley boys goes up to the counter to order while the rest of us snag a table, which ends up being very crowded with the six of us. I'm almost sitting in Louis Weasley's lap.

When we finally get our butterbeers Potter snags one and begins to chug, but I'm too distracted to hex him and make him spit it all out. Rose and Scorpius are a few tables over, and, by the looks of it, are getting very cosy. I grin – I can't help feeling that I played a part in that. Albus looks from me to them and back again. He smirks.

'Miss Perry.' He says. 'I have a feeling that we can work something out that would… benefit us both. Perhaps you call off Rose and I'll do a little… digging.'

'Call off Rose?' I ask in a whisper, to avoid Louis hearing.

'Tell her to stop snooping.'

'And her relationship with Scorpius?

'By all means, let that continue – I think he deserves a girl like her.'

'Well then, Mr Potter, I think we're on the same page.' I grin, holding up my drink to him. He clanks his glass with mine, seeming very pleased with himself.

I think that I'm going to love this very much.

After all, I only agreed to call off Rose. I've still got five more girls up my sleeve.

* * *

**A/n: **Next we get the finale of Amelie's day with the Wotter boys!


	16. Amelie is cunning

**A/n: **Here's the second part of Amelie's day with the Wotter crew!

* * *

_Amelie_

'Hey!' Potter barks at us. 'Stop getting close with her Albus. She's a viper. And get over there and break Rose and Malfoy up. They're getting too cosy.'

Albus shrugs and finishes off his drink before leaving our table. We watch as he awkwardly joins their conversation, urging them along.

'Alright.' Potter says as the trio stands and makes for the door. 'We're going with them back up to the castle. No buts.'

He snatches up his jacket and his cousins grumble, leaving half-finished drinks behind. We make our way out into the cold and head towards the carriages. Rose gives Potter a dirty look as he forces himself into their ride. With eight of us in there, it's a tight fit and once again I find myself sitting in Louis' lap. I wonder what Dominique would think.

The ride is hot, cramped and awkward.

Rose and Scorpius are the first ones out and the Wotter crew all fight to follow them. After a couple of shoves and hexes, they stumble out together. The pair is already making their way towards the school, completely oblivious to the angry teenaged boys behind them. Potter, outraged, reaches for the fresh snow at his feet, packing it into a ball. I realize too late his plan.

Rose's expression becomes stony as she watches the ice slip beneath Scorpius's collar.

'You idiot,' I hiss, finger itching to throttle him. 'Can't you just leave them alone?'

Potter turns on me. 'Shut it, Perry.' He looks back at Rose in time to receive a face full of snow.

His anger fuels his battle cry as he lunges forwards, fingers scraping the ground as he tries to form another snowball to protect himself with. His male cousins join in quickly. I do as well, though more reluctantly. But then I realize how much fun this is.

More than one of my snowballs hits Potter in the back of the head. And it's not an accident.

When he realizes this he turns on me, forgetting his anger with Rose and Malfoy. His fingers reach for my neck, obviously fed up with me. Smartly, I run.

'Perry!' He snarls, chasing after me. He lunges and catches me around the knees, sending both of us flying into the deep snow. I scramble away as best as I can, throwing snow at him as I go. He kneels and quickly forms snowballs, launching them at me, hitting me every time.

Bloody chaser skills.

He stops after a minute to look at me, perhaps thinking that I'm crying.

I'd rather be crying.

'Are you laughing?' He asks, bewildered. I can just barely nod my head I'm laughing so much. 'Why? We're having a serious snowball fight here, Perry.' But then he cracks a smile.

I throw my arms back in the snow, no longer worried about being killed by this maniac. I move them back and forth, forming a snow angel.

'You really drive me crazy sometimes, Perry.' He says, throwing his last snowball into the snow next to me and sitting back on his heels.

'Well, trust me, you're no hoot to be around either.' I reply, watching him warily. He's being nice. Potter usually isn't nice to me.

'You ruin everything. Here I am, just trying to sabotage my cousin's relationship – and you waltz in and make things a bazillion times harder. You always do that. In school, on the pitch… everywhere.' He removes his gloves and wrings them out.

'Why are you trying to sabotage them? Malfoy is a nice guy.'

'Because this is about quidditch, Perry.' He rolls his eyes exasperatedly. 'He's using her to get into your team. He's going to steal her heart and your plans, then crush them both. That's what guys do.'

'Not everything is about quidditch, Potter.' He's getting me all riled up again. 'Albus assures me that–'

'Albus doesn't speak badly of anyone – much less his best mate.' Potter glares at me. 'Look, I hate you more than anyone, but Scorpius Malfoy is second in line. Rose is my cousin and I don't want him messing with her.'

'And what if they really like each other?' I bite back, sitting up to look him in the eye. 'Normal people do that, you know. They don't just play around with someone's feelings and then dump them on the sidelines.'

'Do I sense some animosity?' He sneers, leaning close. 'I can't imagine I've played with your feelings, Perry. You know that I like the giant squid more than I like you.'

'I'm not talking about me!' I snarl. 'Or anyone! Just don't go around wrecking anyone's relationships because you've never had one!'

And then we both snap, lunging at each other. I have a head start and I knock him backwards.

'You are _such_ a prat Potter.' I declare, rubbing his face in the freezing snow. He roars something unintelligible in reply. 'Prat, prat, pratty–'

I whoop as he throws me off of him and turns back on me.

'I am going to rip your tongue clean out of your mouth, Perry.' He seethes.

I turn tail and run. I can hear him dashing through the snow behind me; feel the heat of his glare on the back of my neck. I don't want to look back.

His cousins are just reaching the school when I run past them, taking hold of Louis's shoulders and placing him in front of me as a human shield. He spots Potter coming up the steps and tries to escape, but I've got a good hold on him.

'Perry!' Potter cries, marching close enough for Louis and I to feel him breathing on us. Louis is shaking like a leaf.

'What?' I ask, popping my head over my shield's shoulder to look at him.

'Say you're sorry.' He demands, planting his hands on his hips and looking down his nose at me. This instantly rekindles my desire to rub his face in some snow.

Louis interrupts me. 'She's sorry!' He whimpers. 'For my sake, she's sorry!'

There is dead silence.

'Is this true Perry?' Potter raises an eyebrow. Louis nods feverishly.

'I guess so.' I mumble after a moment.

'Humm.' Potter goes. 'Humm.' And then he turns on his heel and enters the Great Hall.

Louis lets out a sigh of relief and I clap him upside the head. He yelps.

'What was that for?'

'Man up Weasley.' Is all I say before following Potter over to the Gryffindor table. He chooses a spot in the center of a group of fifth year girls, whose immediate reaction is to all sit right in his lap. One girl pours him some pumpkin juice, winking flirtatiously, and another slips under his arm as he reaches for some pork chops.

I look to the ceiling to avoid being sick.

'It's disgusting, isn't it?' Someone asks from my left. I turn to see a girl of fiery red hair sitting there, sipping from her own goblet. I nod in agreement, after looking around to be sure that she's talking to me. I could have sworn that she wasn't there when I sat down.

'They all think that they have a chance with him, and chance at being _that_ girl, the one who changes the bad boy with the famous father into a loving husband. They're two years younger than him, for Merlin's sake! Hardly women yet.' She continues. I snort, she can't even be a fourth year, she's tiny. 'What?'

'Oh – I just –' She catches me laughing. 'I mean, aren't you a little young to be a scorned lover of the boy wonder?

The girl grins. 'I'm no lover, I'm his sister. Lily Potter. Nice to finally meet you, Amelie Perry.' She extends a hand to shake and I accept it. 'Don't look so stunned – you're a hot topic around our dinner table. My mum thinks it's funny how James jumps at the sound of your name and she's always encouraging Albus to bring you up.'

'It's true.' Hugo Weasley says, slipping into the seat across from me, sparing a smile for his cousin. He was usually a quiet fellow and I'm surprised to hear him speak. 'Aunt Ginny always asks how Ravenclaw is doing when she writes. James burns all of his letters after reading them and he never replies.'

I blush. I had no idea that Potter felt so strongly about me.

'So,' Lily smiles at me, switching topics. 'How was your day?'

'Simply smashing.' I reply sarcastically. 'We followed Rose and Malfoy around.'

'And? Any developments?' The other girl leans in eagerly. 'Did he try to kiss her?'

'Um, no, not that I know of.'

'Hmm,' She sighs, disappointed. 'I've got money on them. I bet before New Years, Albus bet Easter. But I'm going to win, right?'

I look around, wary. She's cutting her steak rather viciously. 'Can't say for sure.'

She pops a piece of meat in her mouth. 'We'll see. Oi!' She cries suddenly, standing and brandishing her wand. 'Get your ruddy paws off my brother!'

The girl at the receiving end of Lily's wand shrinks back in fear, sliding quickly off of Potter and pushing away from the bench. Her friends jump up to join her and they all scurry off. Potter watches them go, smirk growing as one of them swings her hips for him and looks back.

She gets a hex in the arse, courtesy of Lily Potter.

'I was handling myself just fine.' Potter informs his sister bitterly.

'I'm just trying to avoid a teen pregnancy scandal.' She says, smiling sweetly.

Potter splutters. 'I'm not going to get anyone pregnant.' He hisses, leaning across me to talk to his sister. 'I'm just having a laugh, lay off. Besides, you're too young to know about that kind of thing.'

She raises a brow at him. 'With you as my brother? You've been teaching me since I popped out.'

Potter sits back with a huff, then glances at his watch. 'Just over an hour left. Back to the common room?'

'B-but I didn't eat yet!' I whine, quickly shoveling peas onto my plate. I hastily spoon some into my mouth, chewing with vigor, before remembering that I don't like peas.

'Oh,' Potter cackles, developing a crazed look. 'Trust me, there'll be plenty for you to eat back in the common room.'

I look over at Lily, mouth filled with peas, and raise an eyebrow. I'm more than just a little scared. The younger girl simply dabs at her lips with a napkin and passes me a roll before standing to join her brother.

'What? I want to see what he's up to too.' She shrugs innocently and receives a noogie.

'That's my girl.' Potter says. 'Now get up Perry.'

I follow them reluctantly. After climbing a few flights of stairs Potter insists on covering my face with his cloak, that way I can't find my way back to their dorms. The whole way there all I can think of is Potter walking me off the end of a moving staircase. I stay close.

He smells nice.

Finally Lily tells me to step up (thanks Potter for letting me trip) and the cloak is torn from my head to reveal the Gryffindor common room. There are people here and there, lounging on red velvet sofas and plushy armchairs. There is a roaring fire in an extravagant fireplace and a couple of first years are playing chess just a little too close.

Potter shoos them away and takes over an armchair, throwing himself into it and letting his long legs drape over the armrests.

'Freddie,' He snaps his fingers. 'Fetch _the beans_.'

Lily takes my hand and pulls me down on the sofa beside her. 'Merlin, my brother is such a prat.'

'Aha, not so fast Perry.' Potter pats the large seat of his chair. 'There's room enough for two.'

When I slowly slide my bum onto the space next to him he loops his arm around my shoulder. I shudder.

Fred Wealsey returns with a jam jar filled to the brim with jelly beans.

'I thought I'd make it up to you, Perry, for not going to Honeydukes. I'm going to share with you my private stash of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Jelly Beans.' He grins, popping the lid off the jar and reaching in. He selects one that's green in colour and wags it in front of my face.

'Green apple?'

I take it, glancing warily at his family, who are gathering at a surprising rate. In less than a second they've multiplied.

As the jelly bean slips past my lips I know it's a bad idea. Biting into it, the taste assures me that I was right. Soon enough there's a little green bean sailing into the fire and I'm left gagging and choking and _scourgifying_ my mouth.

'So what was it really?' Potter sits up excitedly, hitting me on the back to remedy my cough. 'Troll bogey? Toe jam?'

'Broccoli?' Hugo asks, earning a glare from Potter as the younger boy interrupts. 'What? Broccoli is disgusting.'

'Merlin's saggy – bloody hell – Potter –' I splutter. _'That was the foulest thing I've ever tasted.'_

I move to stand but Potter slips his arm around my waist, holding me tight. 'Ah, not so fast Perry. I've got a whole jar where that came from. Chocolate pudding?'

After about a handful of beans and a rapid increase in audience (it seems that the whole of Gryffindor has turned up to watch) I realize something. Something that is going to drive Potter _crazy._

'Mmm,' I say as the sweet passes down my throat. 'Truffles.'

_'What?'_ Potter leaps up, clutching his jar close. 'No! That can't be! That was supposed to be owl pellets!'

'I'm afraid not, love.' I smirk as he rakes his fingers through the beans. A few people laugh.

'Try this one.' Potter shoves a red bean at me. 'Chili pepper.'

It slips down my throat easily. Just like swallowing a pill. 'Strawberry.'

'Onion.'

'Vanilla.'

'Earwax.'

'Toffee.'

'Mustard.'

'Lemon.' I grin. 'Honestly, _James,_ it seems as if your game has fallen apart.'

He continues to force-feed me jelly beans, his grimace growing with each one. I give it to him sometimes, just so long as he doesn't catch on – otherwise my trick is no good. As the clock on the mantle counts down to less than five minutes until the end of my day, I'm grinning from ear to ear.

I allow him one more, to end the night in a way that will keep him at bay – for a few days at least. He grins triumphantly and raises his arms to his cheering house.

'I've had a wonderful time, Perry. We simply _must _do this again.' He turns towards me.

Suddenly the cheers turn to shrieks, and students begin a mad dash for the door.

Someone calls out over the ruckus: 'Dungbomb!'

Potter gives me a rough shove, sending me flying to the floor, making to run off with the crowd. I stick out a foot at just the right moment and he tumbles down next to me. There is a short moment of wrestling where we fight to be the first one standing, but just at the cloud of putrid fumes is overtaking us, a small hand slips into my own and pulls me up, towards the door.

There are students fleeing in every direction and my companion leads me down a secret hall to a corridor of fresh air. We gasp loudly, filling our lungs.

The younger girl grins at me. 'Did you see James? All sprawled out on the floor? He's going to be smelling dung for the next two weeks.'

'Thanks Lily.' I say. 'What say you come back to my dorm tonight, escape the smell?'

'I'd love it.' She replies, taking my hand and letting me lead her in the direction of the Ravenclaw common room. 'In exchange, perhaps, you will accept some tidbits of information pertaining to my darling brother James?'

I'm beginning to realize that an alliance with the Potters will be very profitable.

In fact, I'm finding myself quite in love with one of them.

* * *

**A/n:** Next we have Lily Potter's proper introduction, the Potter that Amelie loves.


	17. The morning after

**A/n: **The aftermath to the auction day!

* * *

_Amelie_

I wake to the sound of gossiping girls. This sound has been foreign to me since last year when our roommate Pattie, one of the most ridiculous Ravenclaws to ever exist, graduated. I assume that I'm hearing things and roll over to return to dream land.

'And then Grace was like, _silencio_, under her desk so that when Sophia went to talk to Daryl she couldn't say a thing.'

I pull a pillow over my ears to block out the incessant chatter. It's barely muffled.

'And then what?'

'What else? Sophia stood there for a full minute gasping like a fish, then turned bright red and ran off. You can hardly get a word out of her these days.'

Giggles ensue. I groan; it's too early for this.

'Did you hear what James did the other day?'

I perk up. What did James do?

I jump up and throw open the curtains of my four-poster, blinking at the bright light burning my corneas. Lily and Ruth are set up on Nell's bed doing their nails. The owner of said bed is rifling through her chest, pulling out clothes and throwing them on Ida, who is lying on the floor moaning. They all turn to look at me in my sudden appearance.

'Good morning, sleeping beauty.' Ruth says, uncharacteristically cheerful for the early hour that it is. Lily waves as the other two return to their throwing and moaning.

'What did Potter do?' I ask, still a little hazy from sleep.

'Oh!' Lily grins from ear to ear. 'Dom told me that the other day in Care of Magical Creatures James was trying to impress Marion Fleud by showing her how to tame a hippogriff – and he fell right in a load of hippogriff stool! She can't talk to him without laughing now. Poor bloke.'

'Poor bloke indeed! I cry, falling back on my bed, shaking with laughter. I close my eyes, trying to envision the scene. Nell and Ida watch me sourly. When I'm done I address them.

'Why do you two look so glum?' I ask, sliding out of bed to a warm sweater.

'Did you manage to miss the spectacle?' Nell spits, throwing balled up socks at Ida's head to vent some anger. The other girl just moans louder. 'McLaggen poured a bowl of pudding over my head and topped it off with whipped cream and cherries!' She falls onto her bed, sending nail polish sailing. 'Arne told me to go clean up and we ended the night there. McLaggen ruins everything.'

Lily takes up her right hand and begins to paint her nails a bright pink.

'And you, Ida?' I ask, pulling on a pair of jeans and warm socks – a chill is starting to set into the castle and I get cold easily.

'I've got a boyfriend.' She groans into a pile of shirts, curling up in the fetal position.

There is a beat of silence, then –

'Boyfriend!?'

We're all on her in a second.

'Who?'

'What?'

'When?'

'Where?'

'Guys!'

We quiet, waiting for her to explain.

'Damon Vicker bought me at the auction, trying to pass me off as some sort of secret girlfriend to his mates.' She huffs angrily. 'I've made a deal with him that if I help him get his ex off his back, he'll give me whatever I want – including secrets. Quidditch secrets.'

'That's brilliant Ida!' I cry, clapping my hands excitedly, racing for my quidditch chalkboard. On it I write each girl's name, then beside Ida, Damon Vicker. Beside Rose's name I write Scorpius Malfoy, beside Nell, Arne Corner, and myself, Albus Potter.

'What is all this?' Lily pipes up and I realize that revealing this in front of her probably wasn't the best idea. 'I mean, I get that each of these girls have interesting relationships with these guys – but what's with you and my brother?' She fingers her wand. 'You know, I may only by a third year, but I know some pretty mean hexes.'

I flush and quickly rectify the situation. 'We've made a deal. I'm not using Rose's relationship with Scorpius to gain secrets, and in return, Albus is feeding me some of his. About your brother.'

Lily squints at me. 'You know,' She says after a moment, 'You could have always come to me. I know my brothers better than anyone. And I'm all for taking them down. Neither one of them wants me to play quidditch – they're too afraid I'll hurt myself. Perhaps we can come to some sort of an agreement? I don't tell them what you have going on here and I give you some information pertaining to James and Albus.'

'And in return?'

'I want to train with you.' Lily sits up straight to match me. 'I want to go out and fly and learn feints and techniques. Those are my conditions. You can take them or leave them, but I'm not changing them.'

I look to my friends. Ruth nods excitedly, quite taken with the younger girl, while Nell eyes her bright nails.

'We have the pitch booked for two o'clock. Do you have your own broom?'

Her eyes light up and she smirks. 'A _Rocket_. It goes from zero to sixty in less than a second. Mum bought it for me this summer, thinking that with my brother as captain he'd let me on the team.'

'A _Rocket_?' Nell asks, hands finding a magazine on her bedside table. 'Fawkes, I haven't even got a broom yet – and I'm on the team! What do you think of this one, Ruth?'

She beckons the other girl and they settle on her bed. Ida stands and brushes herself off.

'Well,' She says, 'I must be off. Lunch date with the _boyfriend_.' She stomps out of the room.

'I have no idea why she's so angry.' I say, moving into the bathroom with Lily tailing me. 'She's doing the team good with this deal.'

'Perhaps he isn't the nicest fellow. It sounds like he tricked her into being his girl, even if it's only for show.'

'He is a Slytherin after all.' I say without thinking. I look to Lily, who doesn't seem to care that I've just slighted her brother.

'I get it – Slytherin's aren't your type.' She says, grinning and sitting down on the edge of the bath. 'I already knew that. In fact, I think that you fancy yourself a golden Gryffindor.'

I splutter angrily around my toothbrush as I practice dental hygiene. If she's referring to her eldest brother then she's surely mistaken, I think that he's a prick and a prat and everything in between.

'A bloke whose got some gut, who'll stand up for you. You've been fighting James by yourself for far too long.'

'I am perfectly capable of fighting my own battles.' I blink at her. 'A bloke will just get in the way of any hexes I launch at Potter.'

'Just think about it.'

'_Fine._'

She smiles widely, clapping her hands, obviously happy with winning our mini-battle. 'Let's go down to lunch.'

* * *

_Ida_

Damon is waiting for me at the bottom of the marble staircase, his smile blindingly bright. Had Evert not been there as well, I might have hexed the boy for being so happy.

Today is not a good day.

I awoke this morning from a nightmare involving Posy Thorn hexing me because I've taken her man. She made my fingers turn into tentacles and my hair all fell out. It makes me wonder what spells seventh years learn.

'I'm a seer.' I announce to the two boys as Damon holds my hand a little too tightly.

Evert laughs. 'Oh mighty seer Ida, what have you read in your tea leaves this morning? Torrential rain? Clouds of dementors? The approaching apocalypse?'

'Ha-ha.' I return sarcastically. 'No. Posy's going to hex me over lunch.'

'That's a given.' Evert nods. 'She's been in a foul mood since last night.

'Oh look,' Damon says, pulling on my hand and leading me towards the Slytherin table. 'There's Posy now.' He looks quite cheerful upon spotting her sour face.

I swear I saw her fingering her wand.

'Hello Ida.' Amity smiles as we approach, moving over on the bench to open up a space for myself and Damon. Evert slips over the table to greet Niles and Hans. Posy glares at her sister, the boys, Damon, and then me. She returns to her soup without a word.

The meal progresses as such: Niles asks me about my favorite quidditch team and I reply that I like the Tutshill Tornadoes, earning a high-five and a lengthy, one-sided conversation about why Geen Karney is the single greatest chaser to have ever lived. Hans and Amity ask about my favorite courses, speaking animatedly about Charms and Transfiguration for nearly half an hour when I answer that I enjoy them equally. Evert asks me what I want to do after Hogwarts and I say that I'm not quite sure, but fancy something with dangerous creatures. He hints that he's going to working on the Ministry's control squad in a year's time and that he wouldn't mind helping me get a leg up on the competition.

Damon gives me a squeeze and a kiss on the forehead, proud of me for impressing all of his friends. Though, the flash cards he gave me last night helped a lot.

The only one still in a pissy mood after lunch is Posy, who I heard muttering hexes under her breath. Amity gives her a kick in the shins and invites me to visit the library with her and Hans after lunch. I make to say no, but Damon senses my hesitation and gives me a pinch in the side and a meaningful look.

I agree to the library.

Niles shoves his hands in his pockets and invites Damon down to the lake while Posy takes off with another Slytherin girl. Oh, how I wish I could go to the lake rather than the library!

Amity, I find out in the dusty, hellish place that most Ravenclaws practically live in, could be one of us. In fact, I have no idea how she isn't. She has her own sofa and everything.

Honesty, is has 'Aunst and Thorn' carved into the molding.

She throws down her book bag and scurries over to the shelves to pull out a hefty, leather-bound volume. There's a bookmark about halfway through it. She flips to a precise page and flops down on the sofa, arranging the cushions just _so_ to maximize comfort. I take a seat on the couch by her feet, catching a glimpse of the title, _Runes and You_.

'Ancient Runes? I ask her, surprised.

'Yeah, I'm not a natural like Damon and Hans,' She spares a smile for her companion who is searching amongst the shelves for a book to read. 'I actually have to study. I've been working on this text for the past month and I'm only on chapter ninety-seven.'

'Perhaps,' Hans murmurs, turned with his back to us but his smirk is intended for Amity. 'If you spent less time talking to that Hufflepuff ponce who can't transfigure a quill and more time reading, you might be further along.' He spins on his heel, brow raised and book in hand, to give the girl a look, but she's got her nose in her tome.

'He's got quills down. It's teacups he has trouble with.' She mumbles, flipping her page quickly.

Hans makes a noise, but now his attention is trained on me and the spot I've taken up. After a moment of knit brows and confused looks I jump up, realizing that I'm sitting in his usual place. He takes it without a word, flipping open his book and submersing himself in it.

I'm left standing awkwardly by myself. A little voice in my head who sounds a lot like Rose tells me that I should get a head start on that Charms essay due for Wednesday. I sigh and move to an armchair nearby to set up my papers.

Half an hour, two paper cuts, one ink spill, twelve corrections, three arm stretches, five doodles, and eight useless books later, I'm no closer to the end of my essay.

'Ida?' Someone asks and I'm glad to have any relief from the boredom that is schoolwork. I turn to spot Rose's cousin there, books and essay in hand, looking strangely surprised to see me.

'Hey Albus.' I reply.

'What are you doing here?' He slips into the armchair across from mine.

'I'm writing a Charms essay on _Avis._' I say, twirling my wand. Yellow feathers erupt from the end of it, not my intention. 'Hmm, there are supposed to be birds…'

'No. I mean, _here, _this part of the library.' He gestures around us. 'This is unofficially dubbed the Slytherin section.'

'I'm here with Amity and Hans.' I point out the pair on the sofa, too engrossed with their books to hear.

'You're on first name terms with them? Since when? I didn't know that you had any friends in Slytherin.'

'Aren't you my friend?'

He thinks for a moment. 'I don't think I count because I'm Rose's cousin and thus I have to be nice to you.'

'Well,' I say, a little miffed at this. 'I do. As of yesterday, I guess, when my Slytherin boyfriend introduced us.'

Albus seems to choke on nothing. 'Who is this Slytherin boyfriend or yours? Not anyone in our year. I think I'd know, I share a dorm with those blokes.'

'Damon Vicker, seventh year.' I say somewhat proudly. His obvious disbelief shows.

'Damon?' He repeats. 'Stickler Vicker? Ace chaser for the Slytherin team?'

'The one and only.' I reply dryly.

'I thought that he was dating Posy Thorn.' Albus raises a brow, trying to find a flaw with what I'm telling him.

'Not since September.' I raise one back. 'I'd know. I'm the only one snogging him.'

Albus scowls. 'Watch yourself, Winters. I know that Perry is playing secrets. Damon isn't one to be played.'

_If anyone is being played, it's me._ I bite my tongue.

'Don't worry a thing Potter, I'm a big girl.' I retort. 'I've got everything under control.'

He huffs, obviously not pleased with what he's hearing. 'Just watch yourself.' With the final word in he stands and makes for the exit, not once looking back. I wonder if he can feel my glare burning into his neck.

_What the hell is he on about? Watch yourself? Merlin, all of these Potters are bat shit crazy._

* * *

_Rose_

After practice Amelie and I sit down to pick out our new team kits.

'Our current kits include lace-up shoes, knee and elbow pads, gloves, two pairs of pants, chest padding and a jersey.' Amelie lists, writing them down in her playbook. She pulls out a catalogue and starts flipping through it. 'Coach Wood recommended this company because Puddlemere buys from them.'

She grins, everyone knows that Puddlemere was Coach Wood's dream when he was our age, then tears out the slip of paper at the back reserved for purchases and passes it to me.

'I have a few items picked out already.' She lists a page and product number for me and I quickly write them down. 'That's a knee and elbow pad set, colour bronzed leather, to show team spirit.'

We continue as such, Amelie listing and remarking on design and colour as I scribe for her. Her writing is just barely legible and I know that's all I'm here for.

Along with the pad set we decide on two pairs of regulation beige pants and white chest padding, black lace-up shoes, bronzed leather gloves and team jerseys. The jerseys are the hardest to choose because there are so many designs. We end up choosing a dark blue base with a bronze stripe running horizontally across the chest and arms, Ravenclaw emblem on the left breast and names embossed in bronze on the back. The paper enlarges magically to allow _Perry, Dortan, Weasley, Winters, Darcy, Affey _and _Taytum_ to be written in the jersey column. We don't have to worry about sizes because the company ensures a one-size-fits-all policy, thanks to magic.

When we're finished we sit back and wait for our total. Finally several numbers appear at the bottom of the page. _Three hundred and twelve galleons, seven sickles and twelve knuts._

'Nuts.' Amelie says, throwing down the catalogue. 'How much are we over?'

'Almost twenty galleons.' I reply with a grimace. 'I'm sure that the girls wouldn't mind forking over a couple of galleons for our cause, it's not that much if you spread it seven ways.'

'It's alright,' Amelie tells me, packing up the catalogue. She quickly copies down the price and how much we're over, blowing on it to dry the ink. 'I know that Nell and Coraline are still saving up for brooms. I'll cover the costs. I'll owl Gringotts tomorrow.'

* * *

**A/n: **Next chapter, James has a preposition for Amelie and the Ravenclaw team.


	18. The golden boy grovels

**A/n:** The plot thickens! Or, Amelie gets thrown a bone by James Potter - which might blow up in his face.

* * *

_Amelie_

I smile as I scribble down some notes in my play book. Our recent addition to our practices, Lily Potter, is going to be excited that I've come up with a chaser's routine that suits her strengths. She's coming along nicely at practices and she fits in well with the other girls. Rose is quite proud of her young cousin for going against James' wishes for his female relatives not to play quidditch.

Speaking of Potter, I haven't seen head or tail of the boy since the dungbomb accident. Lily reckons that the professors think he's the perpetrator of the crime and assigned him detention every night for the past week.

'Psst, Perry!' But all good things come to an end.

'Perry!' Potter hisses from between bookshelves near my table. I ignore him, he's the last person I want to talk to. 'Perry, for Fawkes sake.' He moves from his hiding spot to the seat next to me, quickly hiding his fat face behind a third year Herbology book. I slip my playbook into my bag and turn to my essay.

'What do you want Potter.' I ask. 'I–'

'I have a proposition for you.' He steals a glance sideways at me. I'm too shocked to speak and he takes it as an invitation to continue. 'Our match next week is against Slytherin and I need inside info.'

'And why should I help you?' I scoff, dotting an _i _with so much vigor that I puncture the paper. 'It's not really in my best interest.'

'I can pay you.' He says. 'I know you're short a couple of galleons for your quidditch kits.'

'How do you–' I turn to face him, spotting my playbook in his hands, open to the page where I'd written the costs of our new gear. After Mr Piggy lost some weight I'd brought down the amount, but there was still shipping burning a hole in our budget.

'Give me that.' I snatch my book away with a huff, closing it and pushing it out of his reach.

'If you can get me good, relevant information about the Slytherin team, I'll give you the money you need.'

It's an enticing offer.

'Why can't you get your own information?' I ask him.

'If anyone on my team is caught spying again, we're all sentenced to detention the morning of the match. We basically forfeit.' He crosses his arms over his chest. 'Which I hardly think is a fair punishment seeing as it was the Head of Slytherin who decided it.'

'Do you have the money Potter? It's not going to be cheap.'

'I paid fifty-two galleons for a day with you. It won't be an issue.'

'I'll do it.' I reply, quickly rolling up my essay.

'What?' He asks, startled. 'Really?'

'Yes, why not?' I stand, snatching up my bag and turning away. 'I'll be in touch.'

'Wait, Perry!' He calls after me. 'Deal?' He holds out his hand.

'Deal.' I shake on it.

* * *

_Rose_

'Hey.'

I look up from my soup to see Scorpius there.

'Can I sit?' he asks, gesturing to the seat across from me.

'Of course!' I reply enthusiastically. I check myself, returning my voice to a normal pitch. He takes himself a bun and chews on it for a moment.

'I've done something about Nott.' He tells me, looking across the hall to his table. I resist the urge. 'I would like to ask you not to let the word spread – we're trying to keep it a secret till our match against Gryffindor.'

'What have you done?' I ask, quite interested now.

'I went to McGonagall and asked for a re-trial on his position. He's been replaced.' Scorpius looks up at me. 'I didn't give her any of the particulars; I just said that Nott wasn't fit for the team. Levi Walker is our newest beater.'

I file the information in the quidditch portion of my brain. I know that Amelie will be interested as well.

'Nott is not in a good mood.' Scorpius is still watching me. 'I don't hold any authority over him, but if he's looking suspicious don't hesitate to come find me. I'll take full responsibility of hexing his idiot arse. And I'll enjoy doing it.'

I beam at him. 'This is all because of me?'

'Nott is a prat. This is longtime coming.'

'Thank you, Scorpius.' I can feel my face flushing. I lean across the table, narrowly avoiding putting my elbow in the butter, and give him a quick kiss on the cheek. 'Really. Thanks.'

He smiles. 'It's no problem Rose.'

I glance around the hall to make sure that none of my cousins saw that.

'What do you say we go down to the lake and feed the giant squid?' He asks, snatching a few pieces of toast.

I bite my lip, pretending to think for a moment. 'I say yes.'

* * *

_Coraline_

'Coraline – catch!' Marvel says before launching his super bouncy ball at my head.

Merlin, how did I get myself into this situation?

I duck and the ball sails over me, bouncing all over the place until Lorcan goes to get it.

'This isn't very fun.' I say as it narrowly misses my ear for the third time.

'It would be if you could catch the bloody ball.' Marvel says. 'I thought that you could play quidditch Coraline, let's put those skills to the test.'

'I'm a beater!' I cry as Lysander fakes tossing it to his brother and sends it my way instead. I lunge forwards and it slips through my fingers, hitting my shoe and rebounding into my forehead. I rub the spot, glaring at the bouncing ball. 'I don't catch, I beat!'

The boys laugh. In a fit of rage, then next time the ball comes my way I meet it with my fist, letting out a fierce battle cry. It rebounds into the lake, ending the game. I laugh triumphantly, throwing a finger in Marvel's face.

'Ha-HA!' I shout. 'You can take your super bouncy ball of pain and SHOVE IT.'

He flips me the bird.

The giant squid makes ripples in the water, approaching the shore where two figures are standing, launching toast at him.

'You don't suppose the giant squid will die if he eats our ball, will he?' Lysander asks, seriously worried.

'That ball is smaller, _and weaker,_' I throw in, earning a scoff from Marvel. 'Than my fist. I think he'll be okay.'

'If he's looking sick we'll owl mum,' Lorcan assures his brother. 'She's got a cure for everything.'

'Hey mates, and mate-ette.' A voice like twenty singing cherubs greets us. I turn, repressing a lovesick sigh. 'What are you doing?'

'We _were_ playing catch, but Coraline ruined that.' I get a reproachful look from Marvel.

'That was your own fault!' I rebut, pointing to the red splotch on my forehead.

Fred pouts adorably – and a little sarcastically. 'Aww, poor Coraline.'

'Does she need someone to kiss it better?' Lorcan loops his arm around my shoulder and presses a slobbery kiss to the sore spot. I elbow him in the gut. Idiot – I could have gotten Fred to kiss me!

Ah. Fred. Kissing me.

'Coraline?' Julien is looking at me strangely.

'Um, yes, I agree.' I pretend as if I had been paying attention to their conversation, cheeks flaming.

'Alright, so everyone is good for a romp through the Forbidden Forest?'

'Um, no. X-nay. Nada. Nope. ' I shake my head back and forth as the Scamander twins link arms with me, following after the other boys.

'Come on Coraline. We do it all the time.' Marvel says.

'Yeah, there's hardly any danger.' Fred backs him. 'And if there is we'll behave like proper gentlemen and save the lady.'

Mmm. Alright Fred.

Sunlight filters through the treetops as I follow a path through the forest. The boys laugh and run, hauling snowballs at each other and dashing all over the place. Nervous and antsy, I keep Hogwarts in view at all times. Do these blokes not understand why it's called the _Forbidden_ Forest? Because of the centaurs and the werewolves and the giant spiders – for Merlin's sake, Voldemort hid out here once!

I grip my wand tight.

After a while the path winds its way out of the forest and leads to Hagrid's hut, a small stone building next to the school's pumpkin patch. The old, half-giant grounds keeper is outside and he waves the boys over, smiling at their rowdy antics as they hide behind large pumpkins, dodging snowballs. With one big hand Hagrid dumps a pile snow on Marvel's head, soliciting laughs from the other boys. Marvel dances around, trying to keep snow from dripping down his collar. He's unsuccessful.

''Y don'cha come in.' Hagrid gestures towards his hut. ''Ere's tea on.'

Six teenagers and a partial giant don't fit well in a house made for one, we find. Hagrid takes his seat at the table, pouring tea into massive cups for us all to drink. Julien and Lorcan snag the two other seats, Marvel and Fred take the sofa and Lysander hops up on the counter. I stand awkwardly off to the side for a moment, then perch on the arm of the sofa.

I'm ridiculously aware of how close Fred's hand is to my bum.

''Ow're classes goin' then?' Hagrid asks.

'Good,' Julien replies. 'I've got a nice semester, no double periods. I do have History of Magic first on Monday though.' Everyone nods sympathetically.

'An how're you finding Care of Magical Creatures?' The giant asks nervously.

'It's a riot, Hagrid.' Marvel assures him. 'Everyone loves it. Best course at Hogwarts.'

'Not everyone, ain't at right, Coraline?'

Every eye in the cabin is suddenly on me.

'I – erm – don't have the best of luck with animals.' I mumble.

'Come on, Care of Magical Creatures is the best class out there. All of the animals are perfectly tame.' Lorcan says, sipping at his tea.

'Nah,' Hagrid says, squinting at me. 'S'true. Coraline got pulled inter the lake by a kelpie durin' 'er first class. At was a good day.'

'A good day?' I ask, incredulous.

He shrugs. 'Got ta save a student. At ain't appened since Arry Potter was 'ere.'

'What else has happened to you?' Fred asks, eyes gleaming mischievously as he looks up at me.

'Oh, you know, near death impalements from unicorns, thestrals running me over, random hippogriff attacks…' I say as nonchalantly as I can. 'And the occasional flobberworm trying to bite my finger off.'

'But flobberworms don't have mouths.' Julien says, looking quite confused.

'Yes they do,' Lysander kicks the back of his chair. 'How else did you feed yours lettuce last year?'

Julien hangs his head. 'I didn't.'

We all look to the half-giant in the room who doesn't seem to have heard him. Julien breathes a sigh of relief and starts up a conversation about the upcoming quidditch match. Slytherin bashing ensues.

'I can't believe Jules managed to kill his flobberworm.' Fred mutters just loud enough for me to hear, leaning forwards slightly.

'To be fair,' I squeak. 'The only time my flobberworm was active was when he was trying to bite me. Little Craven appeared to be quite dead most of the time. That was how he got me. He'd lure me into a false sense of security and then chomp.'

'Craven?' Fred asks, brow raised.

'Em – yeah. Craven.'

He leans back chuckling. Beside him Marvel is staring at me.

_Craven?_ He mouths. _It couldn't have been something cool, could it?_

I cross my arms and sniff disdainfully. _No._

* * *

_Ruth_

I change my position from leaning against the wall to sitting on the bench near me.

Is that more natural? It's more natural.

Should I have a book? Ravenclaws always have books.

Is Ancient Runes too nerdy? Defense is cooler. I'll get my defense book.

Fawkes. Where is my Defense book?

_Fawkes._ Did I leave it in the library?

_FAWKES – _

'Lo, Ruth.'

I stop my frantic search for my book to look up at the handsome bloke greeting me. I try to pretend that I didn't just spend an hour watching him under the pretense of doing my Potions essay in the library, then run the hell out when he noticed me.

'Hey Romeo.' I flush.

'I think you forgot this on your way out.' He's holding my Defense book in his hand.

'Oh.' I say. 'Thank you.'

'You could have come over to study with me, you know.' He says, leaning on the wall and smiling down at me as I try to shove my book into my overflowing bag.

'You were with your mates. I didn't want to bother you.'

'You're not a bother, Ruth.' He smiles charmingly. 'Come on back, I'll introduce you so that next time you won't dash when I come talk to you.'

He takes my bag for me and slips his arm around my waist when I protest. He leads me back through the library doors, a maze of desks and a sea of students rushing to finish the homework they'd left till Sunday to do. We stop at a table with several people seated at it. None of them appear to be doing any work.

'These are my mates. Evert and Hans,' They're playing hangman. 'Niles,' He's got a pack of exploding snap cards out. 'Posy,' She's glaring across the table at a pair wrapped close around each other on a sofa. 'Her twin, Amity,' She smiles at me, adding a card to Niles' tower. 'And Damon is over there with your teammate Ida. Mates, this is Ruth.'

He points to the sofa and two heads pop up, the boy grinning and the girl looking a little ashamed of herself. She untangles herself from him and comes to stand by me.

'Where's Shea?' Romeo asks Posy.

'She's gone off to get a book.' Posy waves at the bookshelves then turns away, kicking the underside of the table and causing they card tower to fall, singeing her sister's fringe.

'I'm here,' Shea Thomas pops up behind us. I smile at my Divination partner, glad to know at least one of Romeo's friends. 'Have you finished your dream deciphering journal for this week?' She asks me.

'I'll be dead by Wednesday.'

'I last till Friday.' She grimaces, taking her seat and flipping open her book.

'Is that for class?' I ask her.

'Nah,' She grins. 'It's for my brother. I'm going to plant a prank for him in the Head Boy dorm. Eli won't know what's hit him.'

Speaking of Eli, I should find Dominique and ask her how their day in London went.

Damon comes to stand by Ida, slipping his arm around her waist. I'm suddenly reminded that Romeo's is lingering around my own. I look up at him, marveling for a moment at his height, wondering what he's playing at here.

Before I can find my answer, Amelie rushes past the table, cackling manically, lost in her own world.

'Amelie?' I call after her, detaching myself from Romeo and starting after her.

'Ruth!' She spins on her heel, sling-shotting back to me, grabbing my hands. 'This is great. Simply Spectacular. Potter will regret this!'

The funny thing is, she doesn't sound angry. 'Hey Amelie,' I say as she swings my hands back and forth. 'What did Potter do this time?'

'Which Potter?' Ida pipes up, catching Amelie's attention for the first time.

She visibly straightens as she takes in the group of Slytherins watching with mild interest.

'Oh, no one.' She says offhand. 'On a completely unrelated topic, would you two please join me upstairs? _Now?'_

'Um, alright.' Ida pats Damon on the shoulder in a very un-girlfriend manner. He kisses the top of her head, smiling slightly.

I retrieve my bag from Romeo, but am unable to say a proper goodbye. Amelie is determined to not spend another second there and grabs my arm, hauling me half-way across the library before I can even register being moved. Ida follows after us, running to keep up with Amelie's crazed sprint.

She carries on like this until we're all the way up our dorm. She bursts through the door, startling Nell so much that she falls off her bed, and rushes to her end of the room, pulling out her quidditch chalkboard. Ida pokes her head into the fifth year's dorm to get Mariah while I help Nell in trying to get Amelie to stay in one place long enough to explain herself.

She's managed to get more worked up over this since the library.

'You would not believe what Potter did today.' She says as we seat ourselves. She paces back and forth, spinning chalk between her fingers. 'He came to me and asked me to do something for him. What the idiot doesn't realize is that he has opened himself up to me and shown me his weak spot.'

'And what's that?' Mariah questions.

'What indeed!' Amelie cries scribbling quickly on the chalkboard. 'His trust. He placed his trust in me to get him information about the Slytherin quidditch team before the next game. And he's paying us.'

'Alright,' I say, understanding why she couldn't say as much in front of a group of Slytherins. 'But why did you say that he'd regret this?'

'Because we're not really going to give him good information – we're going to _lie._' She throws her head back and laughs.

'Why is Amelie laughing?' Rose asks from the door, pulling off her knit hat and eyeing our captain.

'Your cousin James is paying us for information about the Slytherins and Amelie has gone looney with joy.' Ida sums up for her.

'Well, I've got some information for you.' Rose smiles, taking the chalk away from my deranged friend and turning to the board. She writes: _Things we know about the Slytherins._ 'Scorpius told me today that he's kicked Nott off the team. They've replaced him with some bloke named Levi Walker.'

'Walker?' Our youngest member asks. 'He's in some of my classes. Fifth year, quite tall. He's not very social.'

'Well you need to get him talking, Mariah.' Our strict, straight talking captain has returned. 'Ditch the Puff and go for the Snake. All of you. Anyone who has a possible contact on that team needs to get in there and get information. I'm talking to you, Ida and Ruth. I saw you getting cozy in the library with those blokes. But not you, Rose. Scorpius is off-limits. If I see you talking to him I only want it to be about when your next date with him is – got it?'

Rose nods, a little confused.

'Every piece of information we get we'll twist and warp so that Potter and his team won't have any idea what's hit them when the match comes around.'

'How much time does that give us?'

'Only six days.' Amelie writes the date on the board and turns back to us with a serious look on her face. 'We've got work to do. Get on it girls.'

* * *

**A/n:** James doesn't know what he's getting himself into. Next we see the girls take on the Slytherin team for secrets.


	19. The Claws snoop for secrets

**A/n:** So. This is a bit of a milestone chapter for me. You're reading entirely new content! All 18 other chapters were written well over a year ago, whereas this chapter I started writing when I decided I would finish the story. Thank you for sharing this milestone with me. Also, thanks for all of the encouraging reviews and for pushing me past 15 000 views. You guys are the best!  
Here we have some of the Ravenclaw team snooping for Slytherin secrets.

* * *

_Mariah_

Monday – 9:00 am

It's raining. I trudge through the muddy, sludgy snow down to Care of Magical Creatures, dreading every step. The only good I can see in this lovely morning of poking at horklumps, trying to make them flip over to show their spots (or show any sign of life at all), is that I have no chance of running into Rhet. All of my classes are with the Slytherins today.

Amelie was excited to hear that. She made me point Levi Walker out to her at breakfast and began scribbling in her playbook right away.

Anyways, no Hufflepuff will intrude on my personal space or make my neck burn for the next twenty-four hours. In fact, I've hardly spent any time around the insufferable bloke since the auction. That may, in part, be because I've taken to hiding under tables in the library whenever I have spare time. Thankfully, he's been quite invisible himself. I've only seen him during class and I always have a convenient escape at the ready if he looks ready to come talk to me.

I'm still not sure what to think of him yet. All of my thoughts are so muddled, when I try to sort things out I feel like I'm drowning.

More than once someone has pulled me out from under a table, seriously confused, to ask me if I'm alright, if I want to go to the hospital wing.

My reply is simply that I've lost my quill, then I change tables.

But right now I'm trudging.

Hagrid greets us in front of his cabin, a large black umbrella clutched in one hand, keys to the horklump crates in the other.

'Ereone ere?' The giant calls out, counting heads as everyone crowds him, trying to get under the cover of his parasol. 'Right. You'll be workin in pairs this week. Let's go, you two, you two, take a horklump and follow along in yer book. Don't forget yer gloves!'

I manage to slip behind the tall Slytherin, my new target. Hagrid divides the class evenly and Walker turns to look at me, his assigned partner. He selects two horklumps from the open crate and nods towards the trees behind the cabin, a little respite from the rain. After a moment of fighting with my monstrous class book I find the right page. Walker places the small, fist-sized creatures on the ground and strips off his protective gloves, coming to stand by me.

They make no move to escape, legs to small and skinny to support their massive bodies.

After reading over the page in silence, Walker withdraws a paper from his bag and divides it into columns. I sit by him, slipping on my gloves and pulling out my measuring instruments.

'So,' I say, not able to bear the quiet any longer. 'We need length from tip to tail, width, height, weight, gender and description of spots and identifiable markings.'

He nods once, adding titles to his columns.

'Alright,' I nod as well, trying to straighten the lumpy tail of the first horklump in order to take the measurements. '5 inches, three centimeters.'

He leans over to see where my finger is pointing on the ruler, then scribbles away.

'Width?' He asks – grunts, more like – and I roll my eyes.

This is going to be _impossible._

* * *

_Ida_

Tuesday – 4:00 pm

'Time to call in a favour!' I sing, spotting Damon down the hall with his friends. I hook my arm through Rose's, who simply laughs.

'I'm out.' She says. 'Amelie told me no more digging. For whatever reason.'

'Here comes your loverboy now.' I point to Malfoy who has broken away from Albus and Smith to meet us.

'Right, we've got a particularly difficult potion assigned this week. We're headed to the library.' She smiles at her Slytherin friend. 'And he's not my _loverboy_. Would you and Damon like to join us?'

'I need to get Damon somewhere a little more _private_.'

'Private in this sense meaning _a broom cupboard_.' Malfoy loops his arm over Rose's shoulder to whisper in her ear.

'Oh _harhar_.' I laugh sarcastically.

'Come on,' Malfoy nods in the direction of his mates. 'Al and Arrol are coming too. I'll take it that you have Damon… otherwise occupied.'

'Go study.' I wave him off, passing them to meet the seventh years down the hall.

'Ida!' Damon calls out to me, extending a hand for me to hold. The other arm is hooked around Hans's neck, who seems less than pleased at the interaction. 'Hans, Niles and I are going for a walk before dinner – join us!'

'Yes sir!' I salute with my free hand and allow myself to be dragged down the corridor. As Niles and Hans break away ahead of us, I stand on my toes to reach his ear. 'Remember what you said about owing me? I'm cashing in.'

'Alright. What are you aching for, love?'

'Information.'

'About?'

'Multiple topics. Mainly quidditch, but I have other questions.' I let him guide me out the main doors and down the steps. Niles and Hans break a path through fresh falling snow for us, the former bounding and laughing, the latter hunched and silent.

'First, what's with Hans and Amity?'

Damon furrows his brow. 'What are you talking about?'

'I mean – you know. The shared looks, the studying together, their own sofa in the library… the Hamity!'

'Merlin, that is a _terrible_ name.' Damon looks simply horrified. 'And there is no _Hamity_. They're friends. Close friends. But no more. Hans has never been the kind of bloke to fancy a girl, and Amity knows that well enough not to go for him. I always thought it would be Niles. They're both nice people. But… _Hamity_…' The thought amuses him. 'Then there's the matter of his last name…'

'What do you mean?' I tug his hand so that he acknowledges my presence.

'Nothing. You've just given me a lot to think about.' He waves at his friends who have reached the shore of the lake. They're testing the new ice with rocks and sticks. 'What's next?'

'How is your new beater fitting in?'

'Hell – how do you know about that?'

'I have my ways. New beater?'

'He's interesting. A little gangly and unsure of himself on a broom, but we've got two more practices to iron that out of him.' Damon pulls a face. 'And he's incredibly antisocial. Doesn't seem to talk to anyone – I think I got a muttered _hello_ on his first day. Captain chose Walker because there's a lesser chance of him going off to woo dear Weasley.'

'Does Malfoy like Rose?' I ask.

'I'm putting a cap on how many questions you can ask at a time – three. You're too nosy for your own good.'

'I'm a Ravenclaw, it's in my nature.'

'Will this be your last question for tonight?' Damon looks down at me. I shrug in reply, I had other questions but I've still got time. 'He certainly likes her as a friend, and she returns those feelings. But neither of them seems to show any form of outstanding love.'

'As if you know what love is – you currently have a fake girlfriend.'

'I have parents. I know what it looks like to have that undying love.' He argues. 'I don't think that it's possible for any young person to feel it though.'

'Well, aren't you just the biggest cynic.' I scowl. 'So you're saying that Malfoy doesn't like Rose.'

'No. He might like her, he just doesn't show it. That's the Slytherin way – and Ravenclaw too, if you think about it. Calculating, guarded, unfeeling. It's the Hufflepuffs and the Gryffindors who lead with their emotions.'

'Thanks for putting down every girl's fantasy of falling in love young with their soul mate.'

'And then kill themselves? Smile – Niles and Hans are coming this way.'

For the rest of the night I resolve to get Rose to show her feelings to Malfoy. They truly are sweet together and no amount of calculating should keep them apart. But I can't shake the feeling that maybe, just maybe, Damon has a point.

Also, how does he know Shakespeare?

* * *

_Mariah_

Wednesday – 12:00 noon

My favorite table in the library is on the far left of the door, around the librarian's desk and tucked into a back corner. The large windows provide perfect lighting, the table is hardly used so the rug underneath isn't worn, and there is a sofa nearby with plushy cushions to steal. It's a prime hideout location.

I unearth the meat pie I'd taken from breakfast this morning and lay out my books. This is what I do for lunch now.

Mallory says I'm being unreasonable.

_Davies has probably already moved on. Come back and eat with me – Merlin knows I can't suffer through another display of how to prune a pusmonger by Ermine Macallen. I mean, the plant's got pus in the name!_

I'm being perfectly reasonable – and I'm growing increasingly flexible. Crossing my legs has never been more comfortable.

Anyways, it's just a precaution. He's stopped talking to me entirely now, further instilling the thought that McLaggen put him up to it for the match. Now that the game has passed, Rhet is returning to his usual lifestyle where he doesn't even think about Mariah Affey.

'Um, Affey?'

I jump a foot in the air at the sound of someone saying my name. I crack my head against the table and cradle my forehead in pain.

'Sorry. What are you doing under a table?'

I push aside a chair to look up at the tall, gangly Slytherin who is talking to me. It's a miracle.

'Walker?'

He simply shrugs. 'Looks comfy. Mind if I join you?'

Before I can say anything in reply he crawls under, replacing the chair and curling his long arms around his legs.

'What–'

He shushes me. A moment later I hear footsteps and two pairs of shiny leather shoes appear.

'Frick – where'd he go?' Demands a gruff voice.

'I dunno mate, he just disappeared.'

'You should 'ave kept a closer eye on him!' One set paces back and forth. 'I'm going to pound his queer arse when I get my hands on him – screw him up for taking my position.'

'You know mate, that sounded–'

'I know how it sounded! Come on. We'll wait in the common room.'

The feet disappear and after a moment I turn to my new companion.

'I'm hiding from someone.' Walker states simply.

'So am I.'

'I think we can come to some sort of deal here.'

'Not necessary – I wouldn't rat you out. Those boys don't sound like they're going to congratulate you on your new position.' I say without thinking.

'How do you know about that?' He asks with narrowed eyes.

'Um – those boys were talking about it. I assume it's something rather important.'

He shrugs, playing with the laces on his shoes.

'So. How are things?' I need to speak as the silence wares on.

He glances at me, amused.

'Good, good.' I nod awkwardly. 'That's good.'

He looks at his nails.

'That's not fair!' I burst out. 'After we bond over our common situations you can't just go back to the Levi Walker who ignores me. Especially not if you plan to stay under here with me.'

'I don't like it when people know more about me than I do them. You're currently holding out. Who are you hiding from?' He says a grand total of three sentences, but it leaves me gob smacked. It must be some sort of record for him.

'A boy.' I blink at him.

'He's not me, is he?' Walker cracks a smile.

'Um – no.' I can't help but stare. He's _smiling._ 'He's a… Hufflepuff.'

'And why are you hiding from him?'

'Because he's bloody confusing! And potentially a scheming liar.'

'Potentially?'

'I'm avoiding the confrontation. I'll get back to you on that one.'

'Ah.'

He returns to looking at his nails.

I frown at him, then consider his confession. 'I don't like it when people call me by my surname.'

Walker smiles up at my slyly. 'Hmm… _Mariah._ I'm Levi.'

'I know.' I reply as I shake his hand.

* * *

**A/n:** Next we have a particularly angsty chapter - James fights with everyone.


	20. James is angsty

**A/n: **It being a holiday here I nearly forgot that it was Monday and time to add a new chapter! Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!

**Update:** Thank you for noticing Amazing F that the second POV is Rose, not Ida. Silly me. It's all changed and ready to go.

* * *

_Amelie_

Thursday – 9:00pm

'Alright girls, bring it in!' I call, raising my arms to stop the quaffle one last time. It was a good attack on Lily's part, but I'm proud to say that I'm one of the best keepers at Hogwarts after many years of practice. I tuck the ball under my arm and follow my chasers to the ground. Rose meets us there and passes me the snitch to lock away. Mariah and Coraline wrestle the bludgers into place, wiping sweat from their faces when they're finished.

'That's got to be the worst part of practice.' Coraline breathes heavily, pulling her hair back.

'Good work today, I daresay you're all improving. Mariah, remember not to drop your wrist when batting, and Nell, watch your left side. But still, fantastic practice today.' I clap my hands together, smiling. 'Has everyone written up a list of things they know about the Slytherin team? I'll take those and work out what I'm telling Potter.'

My team passes in their lists and gather their bags, heading back to the castle. It's late for a cold shower in the locker rooms and everyone has an essay to write or a book to read. I lock up and chase after them.

'How is my grip looking, Amelie?' Lily turns to ask.

'Your left hand tends to slip down the broom as you get tired, keep it up with your right if possible. But your rolls are looking spectacular. I have Nell doing some reading on feints, I might have you do the same. You Weasleys are quidditch naturals.' I say. I refuse to acknowledge her as a Potter.

'Most of our parents played during school.' Lily admits. 'I think that Dominique would have been fantastic on a broom, but James got to her. Convinced her it was dangerous. Victoire used to play, but Uncle Bill refused to let her continue after she shattered her collar bone at tryouts in her second year. The captain was impressed with her spirit, she wanted to keep playing, and he offered her the spot. She couldn't take it though.'

'What is it with the males in your family and quidditch?'

'We're a close knit group. They're really protective of us.' Lily shrugs. 'You just get used to it after a while. I heard from mum that Uncle Ron was torn when he found out about Rose playing quidditch. On one hand he's proud to have her on the pitch, but he'd rather have both her feet on the ground, where it's safe.'

'But it's _quidditch._' I gasp loudly. I can't imagine what my life would be like if I hadn't hopped on a broom.

'But nothing.' Someone calls from the steps of the castle. I could recognise that angry voice anywhere.

'Potter.'

'Lily.' Potter snaps, ignoring me entirely. 'I can't believe you. Give me that broom right now and I won't tell dad about this.'

'How did you find out?' Lily asks, hiding her broom behind her back. 'You hold tactic training on Thursday nights!'

'Tate came back early for an essay. He saw you heading down and alerted me to this_ travesty_. Broom.'

'Tate's on my list.' She spits, fingering her wand.

'Come on, Potter. It's quidditch.' I intervene.

'You don't get to say anything, Perry. You rub me the wrong way because you're good at quidditch and I can deal with that.' He comes down the steps to face me, angry in a way I haven't seen. Usually he's red in the face and frothing at the mouth. Right now he's just brutal and cold. 'But the moment you influence my baby sister to take up the sport, we start to have a problem.'

'You can't control Lily like that. She has the right to do what she wants.'

'You are not family, Perry. Stay out of our family issues.' He reaches out a hand to his sister, raising a brow at her as if to say _come._ 'And as for our deal, I'm calling it off. You can figure out another way to get your money.'

'You know what James Sirius Potter,' Lily says, stepping past me and knocking her brother on the chest with her broom. 'I'm telling mum. You're going to have to answer to her about why I'm not allowed to play. You said at the beginning of the year it was because I was too young, to come back next season. It's more than that and I can assure you that she won't be too happy.'

Potter's eyes nearly bulge out of his head. He's no longer angry. Just terribly frightened. 'You wouldn't.'

'You can't stop me.' Lily says, starting up the steps to the entrance.

He chases after her, leaving the rest of us in the dark.

'Oh no.' Rose whispers. 'Aunt Ginny is _not _going to be happy about this.'

* * *

_Rose_

Friday – 8:45pm

'You realise,' Ida grumbles as we make our way across the lawn to the pitch. 'That this is the second Friday night I've given up to the Slytherin team? And last time Professor Longbottom nearly caught me after curfew – no thanks to you.'

'This'll take five minutes, then you can go back to lounging in the common room.' I respond, shoving my hands in my pockets. 'They deserve to know.'

'And you want to see Scorpius…'

'And you want to see Damon, so zip it.'

'Don't you insinuate that my relationship with Damon is anything more than platonic. Ever since this fakeout started he's been more of a brother to me. Which is strange because I've always hated the Slytherins, and now I spend all of my time with them!' Ida laughs. 'I'll go hug him to keep up appearances. Sometimes Amity and Posy go watch their practices.'

'They're barmy if they do – it's too cold out to sit on freezing benches in the dark watching others have fun.'

As if to prove my point, the November wind shrieks around us, pulling my curly hair. We push forwards, eyes on the lit entrance to the pitch. Once there, we huddle and watch the seven boys zoom around on their brooms, waiting for one to notice us. Finally, my cousin turns for the ground.

'Hello Rose.' He says, leaning his broom against the stands and pulling off his sweaty gloves. 'Damon will be down in a second.' He says to Ida.

'I need to talk to you and Scorpius.' I take his arm, pulling away from my friend. 'It's highly confidential.'

Al looks to the sky, waving down his captain. 'Highly confidential.' He says.

'Much as was the information about your new beater.' I lean forwards conspiratorially. 'I thought you had the right to know – James was paying us for information about your team for this upcoming match.'

Scorpius's face hardens. 'And?'

'He called it off on account of an argument with Amelie.'

'No surprise there.' Al laughs.

'She planned on giving him false information anyways. I just wanted to inform you that James isn't playing fair.'

Scorpius and Al share a look.

'That look means they're up to something.' Ida says, not watching her boyfriend in the sky, but instead studying Al's face. It is highly suspicious.

'What are you up to that we don't know about?' I'd think we'd know everything, considering we'd just spent a week tailing them and documenting their every move.

Scorpius grins and throws his arm around my neck. 'It's nothing that you need to wor– ouch!'

'Hands off, Malfoy.' It's James. Again. He seems to have a knack this week for turning up when you don't want him to. His wand is out and he looks ready to duel.

The rest of the Gryffindor team is there as well, dressed for practice. They watching their captain face off against Scorpius uneasily. The Slytherin removes his arm from around me and takes a few steps forwards. James doesn't drop his wand.

'What are you doing her Potter? We have the pitch for another ten minutes.'

'I've booked the pitch for a late night training session. We thought we might come down early and warm up. Boys, go run some laps.' James gestures to the field and his team goes running.

'You came down early to spy on us.'

'Where's Nott?' James deflects his accusation. 'A little birdy told me you've replaced him with a fifth year.'

Scorpius' neck nearly breaks as he spins to stare at me. According to him, I'm the only one who knows about the switch. He doesn't give me a second to defend myself.

'Get out of here Potter–'

'Touchy touchy,' James mocks him. 'Sounds like you haven't been getting any recently. Stay away from him, coz. Everyone is playing a pretty dirty game this year. I'm not the only one bribing people for secrets.'

'Leave him alone, James.' I step forwards, placing a hand on Scorpius' arm. 'We are _friends_, James! Friends! And Scorpius would never do that to a friend!'

There's a tick of silence.

James winks. 'If you say so.' He tucks his wand away and joins his team, looking quite smug.

'Pack up, Al.' Scorpius grunts, staring after my older cousin. He shrugs off my hand and marches off to the Slytherin change room.

I turn to see Albus and Ida sharing a wide-eyed look.

'That didn't go so well.' Ida groans.

'It's probably a good idea if you guys get out of here.' Albus says, grabbing his broom and waving at the other green clad members of his team.

'Damon! Get down here!' My friend calls her boyfriend down, pulling him close to whisper in his ear, then shoving him after Scorpius. 'He'll straighten things out.'

She takes my hand and pulls me towards the entrance of the pitch, ignoring my confused looks.

'Oh Rose, you've done it.' Ida sighs. '_Friends_ probably wasn't what Scorpius wanted to hear.'

* * *

_Coraline_

Saturday – The Gryffindor versus Slytherin Game

Everyone's a little tense the morning of the match. Sitting in the Ravenclaw stands with the rest of my team, I'm not sure who to cheer for – or to cheer at all. Amelie is glaring at her rival so hard one might think she's trying to push him off his broom with her eyes. Rose and Ida are both bouncing on their seats, nervously watching the Slytherins (I can only assume they're looking for their loveies), and Ruth is torn between hanging over the railings with excitement and studying her nails with disinterest. Mariah is tucked away under the bench and I wonder why she came at all.

Nell and I share a look. Our team is crazy.

'Coraline!' I turn to see Marvel and Julien waving from the partition between the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor stands. I shuffle around the people filing into the seats to meet them.

'You're cheering for our boys, right?' Marvel nods. 'Make it loud, so Fred can hear.' He thumbs towards the pitch where the players are warming up.

'Hey guys!' Fred appears at the railing, hovering on his broom. 'Ready for the game of the season?'

'That comes at the end of the year, and I'm afraid you'll be watching from the stands.' I manage a semi-witty remark, then nearly faint at the thought of having done so.

'We'll see about that, Coraline Darcy.' Fred narrows his eyes at me.

'Hey – are we getting good luck kisses from Coraline?' Lorcan asks, appearing at his shoulder, making our whole ruse incredibly apparent. He leans over his broom, puckering extravagantly.

I scrunch my nose and move away but Marvel pinches my side. I give him a kiss, turning his head to the side so it lands on his cheek.

'Ah, marvelous, darling. I can feel the luck already.'

'Me too!' Lysander pushes them aside for his own kiss.

'Alright, alright – go play your game!' I wave them away.

'I don't get one?' Fred whines, taking Lysander's place.

'I suppose it's only fair.' I sigh, little flutteries taking hold of me. Merlin's beard – Fred Weasley II is complaining about not getting a kiss from me! He smiles widely and shows me some cheek for kissing. I take my sweet time and savour the moment, flushing a violent red afterwards.

'I feel the luck already!' He laughs. 'Let's see how a kiss from a lady fares against some Slytherins!'

'Thank you, Marvel.' I wrap my arms around him in a hug. 'You planned that, didn't you?'

'Lorcan and Lysander love any chance to act. I thought they did rather well.' He remarks, watching his friends. 'Anyways, remember to cheer real loud for us Gryffindors!'

'Sure thing.' I wave him off, returning to my own. They're still a jittery bunch, except for Nell, who has her feet propped up and is laughing at what names Amelie is calling James Potter under her breath.

'So, who do we think will win this?' Ida asks, turning to face the group.

'The question is not who do we _think_ – it's who do we _want_. We always need to be thinking of the final game.' Amelie looks away from the field. Her jaw drops.

'Well spoken, Miss Perry. Reminds me of myself at your age.'

* * *

**A/n:** Who could it be!? You'll find out _after_ the next chapter. (sorry) As it's been 20 chapters and many characters, I'm doing a write up about each character and what they're up to at the moment - to be honest, I had to do this for myself to figure a few things out and I though you might appreciate. So expect that in a week!


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